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THE  SPIRIT  OF  THE 
NEW  PHILOSOPHY 


THE  SPIRIT  OP^  THE 
NEW  PHILOSOPHY 


BY 

JOHN  HERMAN  RANDALL 

Author  of  "A  New  Philosophy  of  Life."  "The  Culture 

of  Personality,"  "Humanity  at  the  Cross-Roads," 

"The  Life  of  Reality."  "The  Philosophy 

of  Power,"  etc. 


NEW  YORK 

BRENTANO'S 

PUBLISHERS 


Copyright,  1919,  by 
BRENTANO'S 


All  rights  reserved 


1 


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Ov  TO 


ALL  WHO  LABOR  ANYWHERE 

IN  THE  BUILDING  OF  THE 
NEW  WORLD 


ja070£G 


FOREWORD 

We  have  often  been  told  that  in  the  critical 
periods  of  history  it  is  the  soul  of  the  people 
that  really  counts;  that  "where  there  is  no 
vision  the  people  perish."  In  this  most  criti- 
cal hour  of  the  world's  evolution  when,  in  the 
turning  and  overturning  of  the  very  founda- 
tions of  civilization,  all  familiar  landmarks 
have  been  obliterated,  all  old  ideals  have  been 
either  dimmed  or  forgotten,  and  everything 
we  once  held  necessary  to  the  stability  and 
progress  of  human  life  seems  to  be  in  the 
crucible,  was  there  ever  greater  need  for  clear 
vision,  and  the  faith  and  courage  to  translate 
the  vision  we  see  into  living  terms? 

It  is  inconceivable  that  the  world  should 
ever  go  back  to  what  it  was  in  1914.  It  is  im- 
possible that  it  should  remain  in  its  present 
disordered  and  chaotic  state.  There  is  only 
one  way  left  open, — it  must  go  forward  to 
higher  and  better  things. 

vii 


FOREWORD 

It  is  the  law  of  life  that  nothing  new  ever 
comes  into  being  in  this  world  except  through 
suffering  and  pain.  Surely  something  new 
and  wonderful  is  even  now  in  the  birth-process 
in  the  life  of  humanity,  forced  into  being 
through  all  the  suffering  and  pain  that  afflicts 
mankind  to-day. 

Countless  books  by  expert  and  able  writers 
are  coming  constantly  from  the  press,  dealing 
with  all  phases  of  the  great  and  complex  prob- 
lems that  immediately  confront  the  world  to- 
day,— political,  social,  economic,  moral  and  re- 
ligious. 

In  this  book,  the  author  makes  no  pretense 
as  an  expert  in  the  solution  of  any  of  these 
specific  problems.  He  is,  rather,  seeking  to 
translate  an  old,  and  yet,  ever  new  vision  of 
life  into  living  terms,  to  transmute  an  old,  but 
as  yet  unrealized,  ideal  into  practical  inspira- 
tion for  the  mighty  tasks  before  us. 

He  cannot  escape  the  deep  conviction  that 
greater  than  all  other  needs  in  men  and  in  na- 
tions is  the  need  of  a  new  and  transforming 
spirit,  if  this  generation  is  to  prove  equal 
to  its  supreme  opportunity.     Of  what  avail 

viii 


FOREWORD 

would  it  be  to  change  men,  if  institutions  and 
systems  remained  the  same,  or  to  change  in- 
stitutions and  systems,  if  men  remained  the 
same  ?  It  is  the  inmost  life  of  both  institutions 
and  men  that  must  be  transformed.  It  is  the 
new  spirit  in  all  beings  and  all  things  that  must 
be  brought  to  birth. 

In  his  previous  books,  the  author  has  dealt 
with  various  phases  of  the  new  philosophy  of 
life,  based  on  a  living  experience,  that  is  grad- 
ually assuming  more  definite  form  and  is  com- 
ing to  hold  a  vital  place  in  many  thoughtful 
minds  that  have  outgrown  the  older  theologies. 

In  this  book  the  spirit  of  the  new  philosophy 
is  set  forth  as  the  basic  spirit  for  the  new  age, 
in  terms  of  a  spiritual  unity  that  may  become 
a  vital  experience  in  the  growing  consciousness 
of  mankind,  and  thus  serve  as  the  sure  founda- 
tion upon  which  can  be  reared  with  confidence 
the  superstructure  of  the  new  world. 

As  he  pens  these  lines,  the  sun  is  setting  be- 
hind the  distant  hills  that  bound  the  waters  of 
the  picturesque  lake,  across  which  his  gaze  is 
directed.  The  sky  is  dark  overhead  and  the 
rays  of  the  declining  sun  are  throwing  strange 

ix 


FOREWORD 

shadows  athwart  the  landscape.  A  few  mo- 
ments more  and  the  sun  will  have  disappeared, 
and  then, — darkness,  the  night  and  the  quiet 
shining  of  the  stars.  But  he  knows  full  well 
that  the  morrow  will  surely  bring  the  sun  again, 
when  all  the  darkness  and  the  shadows  will  be 
dispelled. 

The  world  of  human  life  is  filled  with 
strange  shadows  to-day.  The  sun  of  an  age 
that  is  past  and  forever  gone  is  surely  dis- 
appearing from  view.  Its  passing  seems  to 
leave  the  world  in  gloom  and  darkness.  But 
all  the  shadows  and  the  gloom  are  only  for  a 
time.  We  know  that  the  rising  sun  of  a  new 
day  must  shortly  make  its  appearance.  Even 
now  its  sure  approach  is  heralded  upon  the 
distant  horizon.  By  faith,  and  in  quiet  con- 
fidence we  await  the  coming  of  that  new  day. 

John  Herman  Randall. 
Belgrade  Lakes,  Maine. 
August  15th,  1919. 


CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  PAGE 

I     An  Age  of  Revolt 1 

II     The  Causes  of  Revolt 26 

III  The  Demand  for  Unity 50 

IV  The  Meaning  of  Unity 70 

V     Unity  Within  Oneself 94 

VI     Man's  Unity  with  Nature 118 

VII  Man's  Unity  with  His  Fellows     .      .      .    140 

VIII     Man's  Unity  with  God 164 

IX  The  Spirit  of  Unity  in  Society     .      .      .    190 

X  Unity  in  Religion       ...          ...    215 

XI     Unity  and  Democracy 238 

XII     The  Coming  World  Unity 261 

XIII  The  Pathway  of  Realization  ....   285 


THE  SPIRIT  OF  THE  NEW 
PHILOSOPHY 

CHAPTER  I 

AN    AGE    OF   REVOLT 

"We   are   living,  we   are   dwelling 
In  a  grand  and  awful  time; 
'Tis  an  age  on  ages  telling, 
To  be  living  is  sublime." — Anon. 

IT  is  extremely  difficult  to  characterize  with 
any  degree  of  accuracy  the  present  age. 
The  field  to  be  considered  is  so  vast,  and  the 
forces  aroused  and  at  work  are  so  numerous 
and  so  complex,  that  any  generalization  is 
sure  to  be  misleading.  To  many  it  is  an  age 
of  splendid  idealism,  while  to  others  the  forces 
of  materialism  are  clearly  in  the  ascendency; 
to  some  altruism  is  the  keynote  of  the  age, 
while  others  see  only  rampant  selfishness  on 
every  side;  to  many  the  age  is  radiant  with 

1 


SPIRIT  OF  THE  NEW  PHILOSOPHY 

hope  for  the  future,  while  to  others  the  years 
that  he  before  us  are  dark  and  threatening  for 
all  that  is  of  most  value  in  the  life  of  human- 
ity. 

But  whether  one  holds  the  hopeful  or  the 
fearful  attitude,  there  is  no  question  but  that 
we  are  living  in  an  age  characterized  through- 
out by  widespread  confusion  of  thought,  in 
which  conflicting  ideals,  antagonistic  theories 
and  contradictory  opinions  are  struggling  for 
the  mastery.  When  even  the  accredited 
teachers  of  the  race  find  it  impossible  to  agree 
as  to  the  solution  of  the  gigantic  problems  con- 
fronting civilization,  it  is  little  wonder  that  the 
average  man  feels  himself  helpless  and  utterly 
lost  in  the  intricate  complexities  of  the  present 
world  situation. 

"Who  indeed  is  sufficient  for  these  things?" 
is  the  well-nigh  despairing  cry  that  goes  up 
from  many  a  heart;  while  still  others  of  more 
confident  spirit  are  earnestly  inquiring: 
"Who  will  show  us  the  pathway  that  leads  to 
the  new  and  better  future  for  humanity?" 
For,  despite  all  appearances  to  the  contrary, 
there  is  an  instinctive  feeling  that  the  building 

2 


AN  AGE  OF  REVOLT 

of  the  new  world  awaits  no  sign  from  the 
heavens,  no  influx  of  miraculous  power  from 
above,  no  manifestation  of  any  supernatural 
wisdom,  but  only  the  wilhngness  of  man  him- 
self to  rise  to  the  present  critical  emergency 
and  prove  himself  equal  to  the  mighty  tasks 
the  age  has  thrust  upon  him. 

In  earlier  times  it  was  the  naive  belief  that 
the  gods  who  dwelt  outside  man,  in  the  dis- 
tance heavens,  would  step  in,  as  it  were,  in 
times  of  erises  and  do  for  him  what  he  could 
not  do  for  himself;  it  was  by  the  aid  of  super- 
natural Powers  that  he  was  supposed  to  be 
able  to  solve  all  his  knotty  problems.  But  to- 
day, humanity  has  reached  the  point  in  its 
evolution  where  man  knows,  more  or  less 
clearly,  that  he  holds  in  his  own  hands  the 
forces  by  means  of  which  he  may  make  the 
future  whatsoever  he  will.  He  is  beginning 
to  realize  that  he  does  not,  and  need  not,  de- 
pend on  supernatural  assistance  from  without; 
he  needs  only  to  cooperate  freely  and  fully 
with  the  God  who  dwells  within  himself,  and 
all  things  will  be  made  possible. 

It  is  in  this  conviction,  as  it  emerges  grad- 

S 


SPIRIT  OF  THE  NEW  PHILOSOPHY 

ually  in  the  consciousness  of  the  rank  and  file 
of  mankind,  that  we  glimpse  both  the  glorious 
hopes  and  the  solemn  responsibihties  for  the 
future.  Man  need  wait  no  longer  for  God  to 
act,  as  in  former  ages;  for  the  simple  reason 
that  God  is  always  ready  to  act,  waiting  only 
man's  willingness  to  act  with  Him  and  through 
Him.  The  present  moment  in  human  history 
is  indeed  God's  great  hour, — and  man's;  or 
better  still,  it  may  become  God's  great  hour 
through  man,  if  man  is  only  ready  at  last  to 
live  out  the  divinest  that  is  in  him  and  thus 
realize  his  true  Selfhood  here  on  earth. 

The  one  self-evident  fact  that  stands  forth 
unmistakably  clear,  above  the  universal  con- 
fusion of  contending  minds  and  chaotic  opin- 
ions, is  that  all  the  turmoil  and  strife,  all  the 
various  expressions  of  force  and  violence  that 
menace  the  stability  of  existing  institutions, 
all  the  uncertainty  that  broods  over  the  future, 
go  back  for  their  ultimate  source  to  the  spirit 
of  revolt  that  fills  the  world  to-day.  Never 
before  in  human  history  has  the  revolution- 
ary spirit  been  so  widespread  that  it  could 
be   regarded   as   practically  universal.     Con- 

4 


AN  AGE  OF  REVOLT 

sciously  or  unconsciously,  all  men  are  in- 
fluenced by  it,  and,  to  a  greater  extent  than 
many  realize,  all  men  are  slowly  but  surely  be- 
ing transformed  by  it.  Even  the  most  con- 
servative to-day  are  conservative  only  by  com- 
parison with  the  radicals;  their  conservatism 
is  far  in  advance  of  what  it  was  yesterday,  and 
it  is  moving  steadily  toward  something  still 
more  advanced  to-morrow. 

The  most  stereotyped  and  conventional 
newspapers  of  the  country  are  discovered  to 
have  changed  their  opinions  over  night;  while 
the  mental  and  moral  agihty  with  which  some 
of  them  alter  their  editorial  policy,  in  the  in- 
terpretation of  current  events  or  immediate 
problems,  is  highly  edifying  as  well  as  often 
most  amusing.  In  every  civilized  land  the 
crowds  are  being  constantly  harangued  to 
overthrow  the  existing  order  so  that  something 
better  may  be  ushered  in,  while  great  mass- 
meetings  are  being  just  as  earnestly  urged  to 
maintain  the  existing  order  at  any  cost  so  that 
anarchy  may  not  engulf  the  world.  And  the 
irony  of  the  whole  situation  lies  in  the  fact  that 
the  only  existing  "order"  in  the  world  is  frank 

5 


SPIRIT  OF  THE  NEW  PHILOSOPHY 

and  open  disorder,  and  that  in  all  countries, 
under  whatever  semblance  of  order  may  seem 
to  exist,  there  is  actually  chaos  and  confusion 
worse  confounded. 

Behold!  a  thousand  voices  crying  to  the 
multitudes,  but  how  few  that  speak  with  any 
genuine  authority;  and  even  these  few  fail  to 
command  the  hearing  or  the  respect  of  any 
considerable  number.  If  there  ever  was  a 
time  demanding  the  strongest  and  sanest  lead- 
ership, it  is  surely  to-day;  but  where  are  the 
trulj^  commanding  figures  in  whom  the  people 
have  confidence  and  whom  they  will  instinc- 
tively follow? 

It  is  by  no  means  essential  that  the  spirit  of 
revolt  should  find  expression  in  forms  of 
violence,  though  these  are  its  spectacular  mani- 
festations that  we  dread  the  most,  not  reahzing 
that  they  are  the  least  powerful  of  all  the 
forces  of  revolt  and  inevitably  tend  to  recoil 
upon  themselves.  The  most  intense  spirit  of 
revolt  often  burns  in  the  breasts  of  men  and 
women  who  would  never  dream  of  lifting  their 
hands  in  any  way  against  their  fellows.  The 
most  revolutionary  forces  in  the  world,  now 

6 


AN  AGE  OF  REVOLT 

and  always,  are  ideas,  convictions,  enthusiasm 
for  certain  ideals  that  have  become  dynamic 
in  the  souls  of  men;  and  it  is  to  these  original 
sources  that  the  spirit  of  revolt  that  fills  the 
world  to-day  must  ultimately  be  traced.  For 
he  utterly  misreads  the  age  who  fails  to  see  that 
the  revolt  characterizing  the  life  of  man  to- 
day is  essentially  a  revolt  of  the  spirit  in  man 
against  things-as-they-have-been  in  the  past. 

And  so  if  it  were  possible  for  the  hand  of 
authority  to  silence  all  criticism  and  suppress 
all  objectors  and  repress  every  form  of  out- 
ward disorder, — a  course  that  is  fortunately 
quite  impossible, — the  age  would  still  be  char- 
acterized by  the  spirit  of  revolt  within  the 
hearts  and  minds  of  people  everywhere.  And, 
sooner  or  later,  it  would  be  bound  to  make 
itself  heard,  in  spite  of  all  methods  of  repres- 
sion or  suppression  that  might  be  employed  for 
a  season. 

We  have  only  to  recall  the  conditions  that 
prevail  in  the  world  to-day,  to  realize  the  truth 
of  the  foregoing  statements.  Politically,  old 
and  familiar  forms  of  government  have  either 
already  been  swept  away  or  else  are  trembling 

7 


SPIRIT  OF  THE  NEW  PHILOSOPHY 

in  the  balance.  Czars  and  Emperors,  Kings 
and  Queens,  hereditary  rulers  of  all  types,  the 
vested  nobility  in  all  lands  have  been  swept 
into  the  discard  by  the  hundreds,  while  plain 
men  of  the  people,  with  neither  birth  nor 
breeding,  are  holding  the  reins  of  governments 
and  guiding  the  destinies  of  millions  toward  a 
more  truly  democratic  state. 

The  nations  that  fought  to  make  the  world 
"safe  for  democracy"  little  knew  how  terribly 
unsafe  they  were  making  it  for  anything  short 
of  a  genuine  democracy,  whose  real  implica- 
tions few  statesmen  have  as  yet  dared  to 
frankly  face.  Whatever  else  the  war  may 
have  accomplished,  one  thing  is  daylight  plain 
at  last:  It  has  unleashed  the  mighty  forces 
of  democracy  that,  from  the  beginning,  have 
Iain  potential  in  the  breasts  of  all  men,  to  such 
a  degree  that  no  form  of  autocracy,  no  kind  of 
tyranny,  no  sort  of  human  oppression  can  ever 
again  be  very  long-lived  on  this  planet. 
Sooner  or  later,  government  of  the  people,  by 
the  people,  and  for  the  people  must  surely  be 
established  in  all  the  earth.  For  the  People 
are  awake  at  last,  and  the  war  has  made  them 

8 


AN  AGE  OF  REVOLT 

conscious  as  never  before,  not  only  of  their 
rights,  but  of  their  power  to  secure  those 
rights. 

For  five  years  now,  we  have  been  making 
the  constant  appeal  to  the  rank  and  file  of  all 
lands  as  to  those  upon  whom  depended  the 
preservation  of  the  priceless  liberties  of  hu- 
manity; and  this,  regardless  of  whether  they 
fought  in  the  trenches  or  toiled  in  the  factories. 
All  the  world  knows  how  nobly  they  responded 
to  our  appeals.  It  should  not  cause  any  sur- 
prise that  now,  with  the  ending  of  the  war, 
these  in  every  nation  whose  devotion  and 
loyalty  we  have  both  witnessed  and  praised, 
should  expect  and  even  demand  a  larger  share 
in  the  affairs  of  government  than  has  ever  yet 
been  actually  accorded  them. 

But  the  revolt  that  fills  the  air  is  not  directed 
alone  against  old  or  obsolete  pohtical  institu- 
tions. It  finds  even  more  intense  and  bitter 
expression  against  old  and  outworn  social  and 
economic  systems  that  have  clearly  revealed 
their  utter  inadequacy  to  cope  with  the  prob- 
lems of  the  new  age.  However  clearly  the 
historian  and  the  economist  have  realized  the 

9 


SPIRIT  OF  THE  NEW  PHILOSOPHY 

fundamental  place  held  by  the  great  economic 
forces  in  modern  civilization,  the  mass  of  men 
have  had  but  a  dim  and  vague  perception  of 
the  part  played  by  these  forces,  either  in  the 
life  of  nations  or  of  individuals.  The  veil  of 
ignorance,  however,  has  at  last  been  torn 
away,  and  men  everywhere  realize  to-day  that 
the  fierce  competitions,  the  deadly  rivalries, 
the  bitter  frictions  that  breed  wars  between 
nations  and  bring  hunger  and  want  to  count- 
less men,  women  and  children  in  every  land, 
are  at  bottom  due  to  economic  causes  that  can 
be  removed  or  changed  just  as  soon  as  nations 
and  men  are  ready  to  reorganize  their  forces 
on  a  different  basis  and  live  their  lives  in  a 
new  spirit. 

The  Reconstruction  Program,  recently  put 
forth  by  the  British  Labor  Party,  in  its  wise, 
constructive  and  statesmanlike  treatment  of 
the  economic  problems  that  immediately  con- 
front the  world,  is  one  of  the  noblest  and  most 
significant  human  documents  that  the  world 
has  yet  seen.  It  is  clear  that  the  demands  of 
intelligent  labor  are  no  longer  concerned  only 
with  higher  wages  or  shorter  hours;  they  go 

10 


AN  AGE  OF  REVOLT 

far  deeper  than  these  things.  As  voiced  by 
labor's  most  representative  spokesmen,  they 
involve  nothing  less  than  a  larger  share  of  the 
product  of  labor  and  a  larger  control  of  the 
means  of  production. 

It  is  extremely  significant  that  many  of  the 
representative  employers  of  labor  are  already 
admitting  publicly  the  justice  of  these  primary 
demands,  and  through  some  form  of  profit- 
sharing  or  plan  of  co-partnership  are  seeking 
to  bridge  the  gulf  between  the  old  industrial 
system  and  the  one  that  is  to  be.  That 
changes  are  coming  in  our  economic  systems, 
no  intelligent  man  can  doubt  any  longer.  The 
very  tenseness  of  the  industrial  situation  in  all 
countries  is  the  sure  sign  that  things  cannot 
remain  as  they  have  been.  This  revolt  against 
the  injustices  of  the  old  system,  so  deep-seated 
and  widespread,  together  with  the  awakening 
sense  of  justice  among  a  steadily  increasing 
number  of  the  employing  class  in  England  and 
the  United  States,  gives  promise  of  hope  for  a 
peaceful  solution  of  the  problems  involved,  at 
least  in  the  more  progressive  countries. 

In  the  realm  of  Religion,  the  same  spirit  of 

11 


SPIRIT  OF  THE  NEW  PHILOSOPHY 

either  active  or  passive  revolt  is  increasingly  in 
evidence.  Long  before  the  coming  of  the 
war,  the  drift  away  from  the  accredited 
churches  had  become  clearly  apparent,  occa- 
sioning grave  alarm  among  religious  leaders  in 
all  countries.  We  are  not  thinking  now  of 
the  intellectual  revolt  of  the  scholars  from  the 
historic  institutions  of  religion,  which  became 
so  marked  about  the  middle  of  the  nineteenth 
century  and  has  steadily  increased  since  that 
time.  The  discoveries  of  modern  science,  the 
historical  criticism  of  the  Bible,  the  compara- 
tive study  of  religions,  the  rise  and  rapid 
growth  of  the  new  social  spirit, — all  these  ex- 
plain easily  enough  the  scholar's  natural  im- 
patience with  rehgious  institutions  that  were 
content  to  jog  along  in  the  same  old  way  with 
their  eyes  forever  on  the  past,  seemingly  blind 
to  all  the  new  truth  that  had  dawned  upon  the 
world,  and  unwilling  to  make  the  slightest  ef- 
fort to  translate  the  eternal  element  in  religion 
into  terms  of  the  thought  and  life  of  the  new 
day. 

Many  such  scholars  bravely  elected  to  re- 
main within  the  churches  of  their  fathers  where 

12 


AN  AGE  OF  REVOLT 

they  have  continued  to  struggle  most  earnestly 
for  the  re-vitalizing  of  religion,  often  in  the 
face  of  unjust  criticism  and  even  bitter  per- 
secutions. It  is  not  strange,  however,  that 
many  more  have  felt  themselves  debarred  or 
driven  out  of  the  churches  by  their  antagonistic 
attitude  toward  all  who  would  not  repeat 
verbatim  the  old  shibboleths.  And  these  have 
felt  themselves  obliged  to  live  their  own  re- 
ligious lives  alone  and  apart  from  all  churches. 
As  most  of  these  represented  the  finest  mental 
and  moral  life  of  the  age,  it  has  meant  a  tre- 
mendous loss  of  power  and  leadership  to  the 
churches. 

It  is  significant,  however,  that  during  the 
last  generation,  the  spirit  of  revolt  in  religion 
has  extended  to  the  rank  and  file  of  the  people 
themselves,  who,  however  vaguely  they  may 
have  grasped  the  intellectual  view-point  of  the 
scholars,  have  nevertheless,  in  steadily  increas- 
ing numbers,  become  convinced  of  the  inad- 
equacy of  the  existing  churches  to  satisfy  their 
rehgious  needs.  The  most  intelligent  leaders 
in  all  churches  have  viewed  with  serious  appre- 
hension the  falhng  away  in  church  attendance, 

13 


SPIRIT  OF  THE  NEW  PHILOSOPHY 

the  loss  of  valued  members  to  the  various  new 
cults  that  have  sprung  up  so  rapidly,  and  the 
growing  indifference  of  so  many  who  still  re- 
main nominally  attached  to  the  church.  Each 
year  the  numerical  statistics  of  church  member- 
ship are  published  as  the  cause  for  self-con- 
gratulations, but  the  other  side  of  the  statisti- 
cal table  is  rarely  mentioned.  What  of  the 
nearly  sixty  per  cent,  of  the  people  of  this 
country  who  rarely,  if  ever,  darken  the  doors 
of  any  church?  These  figures  become  all  the 
more  significant  when  we  remember  that  they 
stand,  in  large  measure,  for  the  intelligence 
and  the  moral  enthusiasm  of  the  age ;  and  what 
is  still  more  serious,  they  include  the  great  pro- 
portion of  the  so-called  laboring  classes  who 
have  come  to  feel,  as  they  say  very  frankly, 
that  the  church  has  nothing  for  them  and  is  not 
interested  in  their  problems. 

When  the  war  first  broke  out,  the  hope  was 
expressed  in  many  quarters  that  it  would  lead 
to  such  a  revival  of  interest  in  religion  as 
would  surely  serve  to  stem  the  tide  turning 
away  from  the  historic  institutions.  But  the 
war  is  over  and  the  revival  has  not  materialized 

14> 


AN  AGE  OF  REVOLT 

as  yet.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  the  result  of  the 
war  on  the  churches  has  been  to  accentuate  the 
spirit  of  criticism  within  and  the  spirit  of  in- 
difference or  open  hostihty  without  the  church. 
A  careful  and  dispassionate  survey  of  the 
many  statements  which  have  appeared  in  print 
from  prominent  religious  leaders  as  to  the  in- 
fluence of  the  war  on  religion  gives  the  follow- 
ing as  a  summary:  Our  dogmas  of  all  kinds 
are  at  a  discount,  our  sectarianism  has  been 
riddled  to  pieces,  our  particular  forms  and 
rites  and  rituals  are  matters  of  indifference, 
and  the  demand  everywhere  is  for  a  simphfica- 
tion  both  of  the  theology  and  the  machinerj'-  of 
ecclesiasticism.  The  bovs  who  come  back,  we 
are  told  constantly,  with  any  vital  interest  in 
religion,  are  going  to  demand  a  different  kind 
of  a  church. 

Within  the  cliurcli,  the  war  has  awakened 
multitudes  of  people  from  their  smug  self- 
complacency  and  forced  them  to  think  as  they 
never  have  thought  before,  with  the  result  that 
many  have  frankly  abandoned  beliefs  that 
were  only  nominal  before,  and  are  utterly  at 
sea  as  to  what  they  do  believe.     Others  have 

15 


SPIRIT  OF  THE  NEW  PHILOSOPHY 

come  out  openly  against  religion,  repudiating 
all  its  institutions  as  having  proved  tliemselves 
bankrupt,  both  morally  and  spiritually,  in  the 
world's  greatest  crisis.  And  a  still  larger 
number  are  turning  to  New  Thought,  or  to 
some  other  of  the  modern  cults,  in  the  wistful 
hope  of  finding  what  the  regular  churches  have 
failed  to  furnish. 

A  professional  reader  for  one  of  the  largest 
publishing  houses  of  this  country  and  Eng- 
land recently  told  the  author  that  among  the 
religious  manuscripts  submitted  during  the 
last  six  months,  more  than  a  score  came  from 
well-known  clergymen  of  all  denominations 
and  that  every  one  of  them  dealt  with  some 
phase  of  the  religious  revolt  that  is  now  on 
within  the  churches  themselves.  This  is  only 
one  publishing  house,  however,  and  it  is  safe 
to  assume  that  all  publishers  are  receiving 
similar  manuscripts  by  religious  leaders,  in 
which  breathes  the  same  spirit  of  revolt. 

But  by  far  the  most  serious  indictment  of 
the  churches  is  that  they  have  failed  the  world 
in  that  moral  and  spiritual  leadership  which  is 
their  peculiar  function,  and  of  which  the  world 

16 


AN  AGE  OF  REVOLT 

has  stood  most  in  need  during  the  last  few 
years.  There  have  heen,  to  be  sure,  a  few 
prophetic  voices,  but  these  have  been  the  ex- 
ception; they  have  been  hke  voices  crying  in 
the  wilderness,  to  which  has  come  little  re- 
sponse save  that  of  slander  and  misrepre- 
sentation from  their  fellow  churchmen.  The 
Church  as  a  whole,  both  Cathohc  and  Protes- 
tant, has  failed  to  voice  clearlv  and  unmistak- 
ably,  in  this  critical  hour  for  the  world,  the 
Gospel  it  professes  to  believe;  and  no  amount 
of  specious  argument  or  sophistical  statement 
can  justify  its  failure  to  the  minds  of  thinking 
men,  or  to  the  conscience  of  the  common  peo- 
ple. 

This  is  not  to  deny  that  the  Church  has  done 
many  good  works  and  assisted  most  generously 
many  worthy  causes;  but  as  an  organization, 
it  has  voiced  no  vital,  clean-cut,  moral  message 
for  the  troubled  times  through  which  humanity 
has  been  and  is  still  passing.  It  is  for  this 
message  that  the  people  everywhere  have  been 
listening,  but  listening  in  vain.  "Where 
there  is  no  vision  the  people  perish."  And  it 
has  ever  been  the  instinctive  faith  of  men  that 

17 


SPIRIT  OF  THE  NEW  PHILOSOPHY 

the  one  institution  in  society  that  should  be 
spiritually  capable  of  catching  the  vision 
needed  in  times  of  crisis,  and  translating  it  into 
moral  and  living  terms,  is  the  Church.  Is  it 
any  wonder  that  multitudes  in  all  lands  have 
lost  faith  in  the  leadership  of  the  Church  for 
to-day,  and,  as  a  natural  result,  are  turning 
elsewhere  for  light?  The  Church  really  leads, 
not  because  it  claims  to  lead,  but  only  when  it 
does  actually  lead.  If  the  Church  were  in- 
deed leading  the  mighty  moral  and  spiritual 
forces  to-day,  it  would  certainly  need  no  apolo- 
gists. 

In  the  re-construction  age  that  now  lies  be- 
fore us,  where  are  the  indications  that  the 
Churches  are  preparing  to  assume  the  place  of 
moral  leadership  amid  the  many  intricate 
problems  that  confront  the  world?  Since  the 
signing  of  the  armistice,  the  leading  denomina- 
tions have  all  been  making  extensive  plans  for 
huge  financial  campaigns,  or  already  centering 
their  machinery  on  the  actual  raising  of  vast 
sums  of  money,  running  up  into  the  hundreds 
of  milhons,  with  the  primary  object  of  push- 
ing more  vigorously  their  own  denominational 

18 


AN  AGE  OF  REVOLT 

enterprises  both  at  home  and  abroad.  But  we 
have  heard  comparatively  httle  from  any  of 
the  great  denominations,  with  the  notable  ex- 
ception of  the  recent  program  j^ut  forth  by  the 
Roman  Catholic  Church,  as  to  any  real,  con- 
structive social  program,  or  as  to  the  part  they 
propose  to  play  in  ushering  in  the  new  social 
order.  We  admit  that  money  is  necessary 
even  for  churches,  but  we  deny  that  it  is  the 
first  or  most  important  necessity,  or  that  the 
amount  of  money  raised,  however  huge,  is  any 
criterion  of  the  Church's  true  power.  Its 
source  of  power  is  always  and  only  in  its  moral 
and  spiritual  leadership;  and  this  is  what  the 
churches  must  regain  before  their  money  can 
accomplish  real  and  lasting  benefit. 

The  revolt  against  the  institutions  of  religion 
to-day  may  mean  much  for  the  religion  of  the 
future,  and  may  tend,  as  nothing  else,  to  bring 
the  Church  to  itself,  and  thus  empower  it  for 
its  true  mission  in  the  world.  A  prominent 
Enghshman,  writing  recently  in  the  Atlantic 
Monthly,  calls  attention  to  the  fact  that  there 
is  a  profound  desire  for  religion  in  England 
that  no  church  or  sect  is  satisfying  at  present. 

19 


SPIRIT  OF  THE  NEW  PHILOSOPHY 

He  closes  his  article  with  these  significant 
words:  "The  question  remains  which  no  one 
yet  can  answer,  whether  any  existing  church 
has  the  energy  to  grasp  the  full-orbed  concep- 
tion of  the  Kingdom  of  Heaven,  both  as  an 
inner  and  an  outer  thing,  to  free  itself  from  its 
own  past,  to  proclaim  the  truth  that  Christian- 
ity is  yet  to  be  discovered  b}^  all  the  powers  of 
man's  mind,  and  to  be  practised  by  all  the 
energy  of  his  will.  If  not,  we  may  dare  to 
predict  that  a  new  Church  will  arise  and  de- 
stroy the  old  ones."  It  takes  no  prophet  to 
see  that  a  church  that  identifies  religion  with 
narrow  patriotism,  whose  doctrines  belong,  in 
their  phrasing,  to  an  age  that  is  gone,  whose 
organization  is  undemocratic  and  whose  spirit 
is  exclusive,  for  which  there  has  dawned  no 
social  vision  and  which  is  blind  to  the  revolu- 
tionary character  of  its  message, — for  such  a 
church  there  can  be  no  possible  future. 

If  the  hmits  of  space  did  not  forbid,  it  would 
be  interesting  to  trace  the  same  spirit  of  revolt 
in  the  intellectual  and  moral  life  of  to-day. 
Nothing  is  more  strikingly  significant  than  the 
new  emergence  of  the  spiritual  sense,  or  the 

20 


AN  AGE  OF  REVOLT 

mystical  spirit,  in  quarters  where  we  would  be 
least  likely  to  look  for  it.  It  is  true,  wonder- 
fully true,  that  "the  moon  is  rising  again  and 
the  tide  of  dreams  once  more  floods  the  naked 
shingles  of  the  world."  The  old  star-lit 
myster}^  of  things  is  coming  back,  and  life  is 
filled  once  more  with  meaning  and  signifi- 
cance. The  very  science  that  since  the  time 
of  Darwin  has  seemed  to  be  taking  all  the 
glory  out  of  the  sky  and  all  of  the  divineness 
out  of  life,  is  to-day  becoming  more  and  more 
mystical,  or  in  other  words,  less  and  less  hostile 
toward  the  things  of  the  spirit.  Every  day 
this  science  is  confirming  more  clearly  man's 
intuitive  faith  that  he  is  spirit,  that  he  does  not 
live  by  bread  alone,  and  that  the  meaning  of 
his  life  is  something  mysteriously  sacred,  ra- 
diant and  exalted  beyond  all  mortal  telling. 

The  new  interest  in  the  history  of  mysticism, 
in  its  philosophy  and  in  the  lives  of  the  great 
mystics,  as  evidenced  by  the  surprising  number 
of  volumes  recently  published  on  such  sub- 
jects, would  seem  to  indicate  that  the  spirit  in 
man  is  in  revolt  against  the  dogmatic  material- 
ism  of   so   much   of  modern   science,   of   its 

21 


SPIRIT  OF  THE  NEW  PHILOSOPHY 

mechanistic  theory  of  the  universe,  of  its  ab- 
sorption in  physical  phenomena  merely,  and 
its  unwillingness  to  accept  or  even  to  investi- 
gate the  empirical  evidence  of  the  inner  life 
of  man.  The  tragic  history  of  modern  Ger- 
many reveals  the  fact  that  a  science  and  a 
philosophy,  blinded  to  the  things  of  the  spirit 
and  dedicated  to  the  ideal  of  power  merely,  is 
doomed  to  certain  downfall.  The  fault,  of 
course,  is  not  due  to  science  and  philosophy  as 
such,  but  rather  to  the  arbitrary  limitations 
imposed  upon  them,  to  the  inadequacy  of  their 
methods  and  the  superficiality  of  their  treat- 
ment. It  is  against  these  limitations  that  the 
revolt  is  on  in  the  intellectual  realm,  demand- 
ing a  truer  science  and  a  completer  philosophy 
for  the  future. 

In  the  same  way,  the  revolt  in  the  moral 
realm  is  directed  against  the  merely  conven- 
tional morality  that  has  proved  so  helpless  in 
this  time  of  stress  and  strain.  The  morality 
of  expediency,  that  may  pass  unquestioned  in 
times  of  peace,  reveals  its  utter  inadequacy 
when  civilization  is  trembling  in  the  balance. 

22 


AN  AGE  OF  REVOLT 

The  leaders  in  every  land  who  seem  so  power- 
less to  even  pomt  the  way  out  of  the  present 
chaos  to  some  higher  order,  stand  self-con- 
demned, as  lacking  the  knowledge  of  those 
fundamental  principles  of  morahty,  and  as 
faihng  to  possess  that  clear  moral  idealism, 
which  alone  are  capable  of  ushering  in  the  bet- 
ter day  for  humanity.  It  is  the  rank  and  file 
of  the  people  who  see  this  weakness  most 
keenly, — the  unsophisticated  men  and  women, 
— and  it  is  they  who  are  demanding  a  higher 
type  of  morality  both  in  private  and  public  life. 
It  is  clear  that  the  revolt  is  against  the  con- 
ventional limiting  of  morals  to  the  individual 
life,  while  the  worlds  of  politics,  of  business, 
of  industry  are  practically  regarded  as  being 
above  or  beyond  the  reach  of  all  moral  law. 

What  is  becoming  increasingly  plain  to  all 
reflecting  minds  is  that  the  spirit  of  revolt  that 
is  finding  expression  in  the  political,  the  social, 
the  economic,  the  intellectual,  the  religious  and 
the  moral  worlds  is,  in  the  last  analysis,  a  re- 
volt within  oneself;  or  better  still,  a  revolt 
against  oneself, — against  the   imperfect  self, 

23 


SPIRIT  OF  THE  NEW  PHILOSOPHY 

and  the  only  self  that  most  of  us  know  as  yet. 

All  thoughtful  minds  realize  more  or  less 
clearly  to-day  that  both  sin  and  salvation  are 
social  as  well  as  individual  facts.  Whatever 
limitations  or  weaknesses  or  shortcomings  may 
characterize  our  age,  it  is  clear  that  we  are  all 
of  us  in  some  actual  degree  responsible.  We 
must  either  all  go  up  together  or  else  go  down 
together ;  there  is  no  such  thing  as  being  saved 
or  lost  alone.  We  are  all  members  one  of  an- 
other, organically  related  in  one  living  Whole ; 
so  that  in  a  real  sense,  what  we  are,  all  are. 
Whatever  our  age  may  prove  to  be,  depends 
at  bottom  on  what  we,  the  individual  men  and 
women  living  in  this  age,  actually  are  in  our 
deepest  selves. 

For  this  reason,  the  widespread  revolt 
against  things-as-they-are  is  really  nothing  else 
than  a  revolt  against  ourselves  as  we  are;  for 
it  is  we  who  make  the  age  what  it  is.  If  the 
age  is  blind  or  materialistic  or  selfish  or  lacking 
in  moral  idealism,  it  is  because  these  weak- 
nesses are  present  in  us,  for  the  age  is  but  the 
reflection  of  ourselves.  We  shall  never  be- 
come equal  to  ushering  in  any  better  age  until, 

24. 


AN  AGE  OF  REVOLT 

first  of  all,  we  ourselves  become  better  men 
and  women. 

"The  fault  lies  not  in  our  stars,  but  in  ourselves,  dear 
Brutus,  that  we  are  underlings." 


25 


CHAPTER  II 

THE    CAUSES   OF   REVOLT 

"New   occasions   teach   new   duties. 
Time  makes  ancient  good  uncouth; 
We  must  upward  be  and  onward 
Who  would  keep  abreast  of  Truth." — Lowell. 

ALL  human  progress  involves  change,  but 
it  by  no  means  follows  that  all  change 
registers  progress.  To  determine  whether  the 
spirit  of  revolt  that  is  so  insistently  opposing 
the  institutions  and  systems  under  which  man- 
kind has  been  living  its  life,  is  demanding 
changes  that  will  mean  real  progress  for  hu- 
manity, depends  upon  the  causes  out  of  which 
the  revolt  actually  springs,  and  the  ends  to- 
ward which  it  is  definitely  moving. 

It  must  be  kept  in  mind  that  this  spirit  of 
revolt  is  not  confined  to  any  one  nation  or  race ; 
it  is  literally  world  wide.  It  is  not  limited  to 
any  particular  phase  of  man's  life,  but  includes 
the  entire  range  of  his  thought,  activity  and 

26 


THE  CAUSES  OF  REVOLT 

aspiration.  The  whole  world  has  been  passing 
through  a  convulsion  that  has  shaken  it  to  its 
very  depths.  It  is  not  the  superstructure  of 
civilization  that  is  being  threatened,  but  the 
deep  foundations  themselves,  upon  which  must 
be  based  everything  that  is  of  worth  and  mean- 
ing to  man. 

There  are  many  clergymen,  of  the  pre-mil- 
lennial  school  of  thought,  who  would  have  us 
believe  that  the  turning  and  overturning  that  is 
taking  place  signifies  nothing  else  than  the 
literal  end  of  the  world.  We  need  not  share 
their  gloomy  and  childish  apprehensions;  but 
one  thing  is  sure:  The  spirit  of  revolt,  so  uni- 
versal, so  profound  and  so  all-inclusive  of  the 
different  realms  in  which  man  lives  and  moves 
and  has  his  being,  can  mean  nothing  less  than 
the  dawning  of  a  new  epoch  in  the  life  of  hu- 
manity. 

All  exercise  of  the  strong  hand  of  authority, 
every  use  of  drastic  measures  of  repression,  all 
insistence  upon  the  necessity  of  preserving  the 
"existing  order"  may  succeed  in  postponing, 
but  it  can  never  permanently  halt  the  com- 
ing of  the  new  day.     For  the  hour  has  struck 

27 


SPIRIT  OF  THE  NEW  PHILOSOPHY 

at  last,  on  the  great  dial  of  human  history, 
when  things-as-they-are  must  give  place  to 
things-as-they-are-to-be. 

Only  the  most  superficial  observer  comforts 
himself  any  longer  with  the  thought  that  the 
social  upheaval  we  are  witnessing  throughout 
the  world  is  "the  mere  inevitable  result  of  the 
war";  and  that,  with  the  ratification  of  the 
Peace  Treaty  and  the  starting  up  again  of  the 
wheels  of  industry  in  the  war-stricken  coun- 
tries,  all  social  unrest  will  gradually  quiet 
down;  so  that,  before  the  lapse  of  many 
months,  the  world  will  have  settled  back  into 
"normal  conditions."  Such  prophets  of  Peace 
utterly  fail  to  understand  either  the  nature  or 
the  extent  of  the  revolt  that  sweeps  the  world 
to-day.  It  is  indeed  the  inevitable  result  of 
the  war,  but  in  a  vastly  deeper  sense  than  most 
people  imagine  as  yet.  The  war  has  left  fields 
untilled,  industry  crippled,  business  paralyzed, 
homes  desolated,  hearts  sorrowing,  and  hun- 
dreds of  milhons  burdened  with  grievous  taxa- 
tion for  generations  to  come.  But,  in  some 
large  degree,  this  is  the  tragic  fruitage  of  all 
wars.     If  these  were  the  only,  or  even  the 

28 


THE  CAUSES  OF  REVOLT 

chief,  results  of  the  great  war,  we  might  in- 
deed look  forward  with  the  assurance  that  in 
the  near  future,  the  unrest  and  disorder  and 
revolt  that  mark  these  post-war  days  would 
surely  pass  away. 

The  most  significant  results  of  this  war, 
however,  lie  much  deeper  than  the  present 
hunger  and  want  and  sorrow  that  fill  the  world. 
As  yet  we  can  only  glimpse  them  in  their  gen- 
eral outlines;  it  remains  for  the  future  to  re- 
veal them  in  all  their  potent  details.  This 
war,  in  contradistinction  to  all  other  wars  of 
history,  has  aroused  the  people  everywhere  to 
think  for  themselves,  it  has  set  free  the  deep 
and  powerful  forces  that  have  always  been 
latent  in  the  breast  of  humanity  but  that  have 
only  now  begun  to  function  in  their  universal 
aspects,  it  has  served  to  formulate  ideals  and 
crystallize  convictions  and  awaken  determina- 
tions; in  a  word,  it  has  loosed  everywhere  the 
dynamic  forces  of  humanity  that  the  spirit  of 
autocracy  in  all  ages  has  sought  to  keep  in 
chains  of  subjection.  But  the  chains  are 
broken  to-day,  for  the  People  have  awakened 
to  self-consciousness  at  last. 

29 


SPIRIT  OF  THE  NEW  PHILOSOPHY 

That  this  has  been  the  great  achievement  of 
this  war  is  due,  not  only  to  the  number  of 
countries  involved  or  the  millions  of  men  en- 
gaged or  the  terrific  losses  incurred  or  the  un- 
precedented cost  in  money  or  the  bitterness 
with  which  the  struggle  has  been  waged,  but, 
more  than  all  else,  to  the  fact  that  the  time  was 
ripe  in  human  history,  as  never  before,  for  the 
awakening  of  the  people  as  a  whole  to  their 
real  place,  their  just  rights  and  their  true 
power  in  the  world.  All  the  events  of  all  the 
past  have  been  preparing  the  people  for  this 
momentous  hour  of  their  emancipation  from 
the  bonds  of  every  sort  of  tyranny.  Never 
before  in  history  could  a  war,  even  had  it  been 
as  great  as  this  war,  have  fomid  the  people  so 
ready  to  learn  its  tragic  lessons  and  projfit  by 
its  profound  sufferings. 

All  previous  wars,  excepting  of  course  civil 
uprisings,  have  been  wars  of  rulers  and  po- 
tentates, in  which  the  people  have  been  merely 
the  pawns  to  do  their  masters'  bidding.  They 
gave  their  lives  unthinkingly,  in  the  spirit  of  a 
blind  sense  of  duty;  and  after  the  war  was 
over,  they  settled  back  again  into  a  more  or 

30 


THE  CAUSES  OF  REVOLT 

less  uneasy  slumber.  But,  regardless  of  its 
beginnings,  this  has  been  the  peoples'  war. 
The  rank  and  file,  both  in  the  field  and  at 
home,  have  fought  and  suifered  and  sacrificed 
in  the  firm  conviction  that  this  was  to  be  the 
war  that  should  end  wars.  To  that  great  end, 
the  people  have  realized  that  a  reorganization 
of  the  world-life  was  imperative,  that  a  new 
basis  must  be  found  for  civilization  and  a  new 
spirit  achieved  in  the  collective  life  of  human- 
ity. 

The  extent  to  which  this  was  believed  and 
the  degree  to  which  it  has  furnished  the  motive 
power  for  the  enthusiasm  and  courage  of  the 
men  engaged,  is  revealed  by  all  who  have  come 
into  personal  contact  with  the  armies  of  the 
various  nations.  This  is  the  absolutely  unique 
feature  of  the  war  just  ended  that  has  created 
the  lofty  moral  idealism  in  the  hearts  of  men. 
It  has  been  due  to  the  wider  diffusion  of  educa- 
tion, the  larger  development  of  the  moral 
sense,  the  deeper  growth  of  the  social  spirit,, 
the  keener  realization  that,  in  every  war,  the 
people  must  pay  the  tragic  costs  while  the  real 
war-makers  either  profit  or  go  free,  and  above 

31 


SPIRIT  OF  THE  NEW  PHILOSOPHY 

all,  to  the  consciousness,  never  before  so  clearly 
aroused,  that  the  people  themselves  hold  it  in 
their  own  hands  to  decide  the  future  destiny  of 
mankind.  The  longer  the  war  continued,  the 
more  pronounced  became  this  conviction. 
Multitudes  who  had  only  thought  in  terms  of 
their  little  villages  before,  have  been  learning 
to  think  in  terms  of  the  nation,  and  in  many 
cases,  even  in  world-terms.  In  spite  of  all  the 
fierce  nationalisms  that  have  been  aroused, 
some  conception  of  a  coming  Internationalism 
has  begun  to  emerge,  more  or  less  clearly,  in 
countless  minds. 

Because  of  these  unique,  and  hitherto  un- 
heard of,  spiritual  forces  which  the  war  has 
called  forth,  not  only  in  its  fighting  men  but 
also  in  a  large  proportion  of  the  populations 
back  at  home,  it  has  made  little  difference  to 
the  people  how  old-fashioned  might  be  the 
terms  of  any  Peace  Treaty  decided  upon  at 
Paris.  For  the  people  have  long  since  deter- 
mined that  the  final  Peace  must  be  a  Peace  of 
justice,  involving  such  a  reorganization  of  in- 
ternational relations  as  should  ensure  a  per- 
manent Peace  for  the  world.     And  the  people 

32 


THE  CAUSES  OF  REVOLT 

know  to-day  that  they  possess  the  power  to 
jseeure  eventually  just  such  a  Peace,  and  that 
it  was  only  for  such  a  Peace  that  they  have 
made  all  the  great  sacrifices. 

It  is  to  these  deeper  sources  that  the  spirit  of 
revolt  must  be  traced,  rather  than  to  any  mere 
unsettling  process  of  the  surface  of  man's  life, 
occasioned  by  the  war.  And  we  shall  fail  ut- 
terly in  our  interpretation  of  this  most  charac- 
teristic spirit  of  the  times,  unless  we  view  it 
from  the  deeper  source  whence  it  springs.  In 
other  words,  the  war  has  only  brought  to  the 
surface  and  awakened  to  fulness  of  life  what 
has  long  been  slumbering  beneath  the  surface 
in  all  lands.  The  war  is  the  immediate  cause 
of  a  revolt,  whose  predisposing  causes  lie  far 
behind  us  in  the  past. 

In  "Sartor  Resartus,"  one  of  the  gi-eat 
books  of  the  nineteenth  century,  Carlyle  sug- 
gests the  real  cause  of  the  revolt  that  so  clearly 
marks  the  first  quarter  of  the  twentieth  cen- 
tury. In  his  quaint  philosophy  of  clothes,  he 
points  out  that  just  as  all  the  garments  we 
wear  are,  sooner  or  later,  outgrown  or  become 
threadbare,  and  have  to  be  patched  or  dis- 

33 


SPIRIT  OF  THE  NEW  PHILOSOPHY 

carded  for  new  and  more  fitting  garments, 
even  so  it  is  with  all  the  institutions,  systems, 
laws,  customs,  beliefs  and  ideals  in  which  man 
has  from  time  to  time  arrayed  himself.  Even 
the  best  of  them  are  at  length  outgrown  and 
become  old-fashioned  and  obsolete;  they  cease 
to  fulfil  the  original  purpose  for  which  they 
were  intended.  So  that  the  time  inevitably 
comes  when  man  must  discard  these  outworn 
or  outgrown  institutions,  systems,  laws  and 
beliefs,  and  fashion  for  himself  garments  more 
fitting  to  his  present-day  needs. 

Carlyle,  and  other  prophetic  souls  like  him, 
only  saw  fifty  j'^ears  and  more  ago  what  most 
intelligent  men  have  come  to  see  clearly  to- 
day. And  since  Carlyle's  time,  these  nonde- 
script garments  of  civilization  have  steadily 
been  becoming  more  threadbare  and  dilapi- 
dated than  when  he  wrote.  The  simple  fact 
is  that  humanity  has  been  fast  outgrowing  the 
forms  and  institutions  and  beliefs  that  have 
been  handed  down  from  the  past.  The  gar- 
ments of  a  nineteenth-century  civilization  are 
no  longer  suitable  to,  nor  do  they,  fit  the  man  of 

34. 


THE  CAUSES  OF  REVOLT 

to-day.  For  man  himself  has  been  constantly- 
growing,  and  growing  far  more  rapidly  than 
have  the  forms  of  the  civilization  under  which 
he  lives  his  life.  He  has  been  growing  in  his 
knowledge,  in  his  moral  ideals,  in  his  social 
consciousness  and  in  his  spiritual  powers  of 
perception. 

All  forms  of  life  depend  upon  the  harmony 
of  the  living  organism  with  its  environment; 
when  that  harmony  is  interrupted,  death  en- 
sues. We  know  that  this  law  holds  true  of 
man's  phj^sical  life,  but  we  have  not  always 
perceived  that  it  holds  just  as  true  of  his 
higher  moral  and  spiritual  being.  The  politi- 
cal institutions,  economic  systems,  religious  be- 
liefs and  moral  ideals  that  have  held  sway  over 
man's  life  for  the  last  century  and  more,  grew 
naturally  out  of  certain  needs  in  human  life  at 
the  time  when  they  came  into  existence.  The 
particular  forms  they  took  at  that  time  de- 
pended upon  man's  knowledge  of  himself  and 
of  his  fellows,  of  the  laws  of  nature,  of  the 
principles  making  for  social  control,  and  es- 
pecially, upon  how  far  along  he  had  come  in 

35 


SPIRIT  OF  THE  NEW  PHILOSOPHY 

his  perception  of  those  fundamental  moral 
laws  that  underlie  the  harmonious  collective 
life  of  man. 

But  while  all  institutions,  systems,  laws,  be- 
liefs and  ideals  inevitably  tend  to  become 
static,  man  is  forever  a  dynamic  being.  In 
the  nature  of  things,  he  can  never  become  sat- 
isfied with  things-as-they-are.  In  just  the 
measure  that  he  does  become  content,  he  ceases 
to  aspire  and  so  ceases  truly  to  live.  It  is  this 
inborn  capacity  for  divine  discontent  that  ex- 
plains the  spirit  of  revolt  in  man,  whenever  it 
appears,  that  proves  man's  real  divinity  and 
that  lifts  him  immeasurably  above  the  brute 
creation. 

It  is  this  that  makes  the  present  age  of 
world-wide  revolt  such  a  wonderful  age  in 
which  to  be  alive.  It  is  not  its  chaotic  con- 
fusion of  mind,  its  vacillating  uncertainty,  its 
apparent  lack  of  moral  leadership  or  its  mighty 
problems,  but  rather,  its  deep-seated  capacity 
for  protest  against  the  world  as  it  is  and  its 
ability  to  visualize  an  ideal  Kingdom  of 
Heaven  here  on  earth,  that  should  give  to  the 
present  generation  its  real  zest  for  living,  its 

36 


THE  CAUSES  OF  REVOLT 

vital  faith  in  the  future  and  its  unflagging  in- 
spiration to  solve  the  problems  that  imme- 
diately confront  it. 

The  political  ideals  for  the  state,  as  set  forth 
by  the  liberal  school  of  economists  in  France, 
England  and  the  United  States  at  the  begin- 
ning of  the  nineteenth  century,  were  based  on 
an  optimistic  conception  of  human  nature. 
They  held  that,  if  man  was  only  given  perfect 
freedom  to  follow  his  own  self-interest,  it 
would  eventually  work  out  for  the  best  inter- 
ests of  all.  They  sought,  therefore,  to  mini- 
mize the  authority  of  the  State  and  its  exercise 
over  the  individual,  with  the  result  that  the 
theory  underlying  the  authority  of  the  State 
became  the  theory  of  the  "passive  policeman." 
The  State  should  keep  all  hands  off  the  actions 
of  the  individual,  stepping  in  to  interfere  only 
in  case  of  an  emergency  or  when  some  special 
trouble  arose. 

Meantime  the  industrial  revolution,  made 
possible  by  the  invention  of  machinery,  had 
been  ushered  in,  bringing  to  industrial  coun- 
tries a  tremendously  rapid  development  of 
manufacturing  interests.    The  "passive  police- 

37 


SPIRIT  OF  THE  NEW  PHILOSOPHY 

man"  theory  of  government  fitted  in  very  com- 
fortably with  the  self-interest  of  the  manufac- 
turers; but  instead  of  justifying  the  optimism 
of  the  economists  as  to  the  working  out  of  free 
self-interest,  we  find  factory  conditions  reach- 
ing a  most  deplorable  state,  even  in  so  enlight- 
ened a  country  as  England.  The  unjust  con- 
ditions that  have  continued  to  prevail  between 
capital  and  labor  in  all  industrial  countries, 
while  they  have  been  vastly  changed  for  the 
better  through  the  force  of  public  sentiment, 
are  to-day  still  the  cause  of  the  industrial  un- 
rest and  grow  out,  primarily,  of  the  lack  of 
proper  regulation  by  an  enlightened  State. 

It  has  been  for  some  time  a  commonplace 
that  the  conventional  nineteenth-century  doc- 
trine of  the  State  is  breaking  down  beneath 
the  pressure  of  facts  and  events;  but  it  has 
been  far  from  clear  whither  the  new  movement 
was  tending  and  whether  it  had  constructive 
elements  within  itself.  Both  in  theory  and 
practise,  the  State  is  in  the  melting  pot,  though 
it  may  be  said  that  the  outlines  of  the  new  con- 
ception are  beginning  to  appear. 

This  much,  at  least,  is  daily  becoming  more 

38 


THE  CAUSES  OF  REVOLT 

apparent,  that  the  truly  democratic  State  is 
not  the  State  that  leaves  all  people  free  to  do 
as  they  please,  but  one  that  is  so  organized  that 
all  its  people  are  made  free  from  the  encroach- 
ments of  selfishness  and  greed  in  any  form; 
that  sees  to  it  that  all  individuals,  even  the 
weakest  and  lowest  in  the  social  scale,  secure 
nothing  but  the  square  deal.  It  is  thus  that 
humanity  has  outgrown  the  older  political  in- 
stitutions and  is  demanding  to-day  a  more  ad- 
equate conception  of  the  functions  of  Govern- 
ment to  meet  the  demands  of  justice  for  all. 

Thus  the  economic  system  that  gained  its 
first  foothold  in  society  at  the  time  of  the  in- 
dustrial revolution  and  that  has  steadily  grown 
in  scope  and  power,  until  to-day  it  almost 
seems  to  have  superseded  the  State  in  the 
range  of  its  influence,  can  no  longer  be  tol- 
erated in  its  present  autocratic  form  if  liberty 
and  freedom  are  to  be  anything  more  than 
empty  words  in  modern  life.  It  is  not  within 
the  province  of  this  work  to  consider  the  var- 
ious solutions  of  the  economic  problems  that 
present  themselves  to  us  to-day.  It  is  enough 
to  say,  in  this  connection,  that  a  system  that 

39 


SPIRIT  OF  THE  NEW  PHILOSOPHY 

literally  gives  to  the  employing  class  the  power 
of  life  and  death  over  the  employed,  that 
creates  class  antagonism  and  bitterness,  that 
results  in  the  massing  of  wealth  in  the  hands 
of  the  few  while  the  many  live  only  from  hand 
to  mouth,  that  produces  the  grave  inequalities 
so  apparent  in  modern  society  and  that  fosters 
inevitably  the  spirit  of  hatred  in  the  commun- 
ity,— that  such  a  system  is  radically  wrong  in 
principle  and  must  be  changed. 

All  the  protests,  all  the  revolts  and  often- 
times the  violence  that  find  expression  in  aU 
social  classes  against  the  fundamental  in- 
justice of  such  a  system,  are  simply  the  visible 
proof  that  humanity  has  outgrown  the  present 
form  of  the  economic  system  under  which  it 
has  been  living  for  the  last  hundred  years,  and 
is  demanding  that  a  more  just  and  righteous 
system  take  its  place. 

The  intellectual  revolt,  difficult  as  it  may  be 
to  interpret  it  aright,  is  also,  in  its  deepest  as- 
pects, a  revolt  against  the  inadequacy  of  the 
present-day  philosophy  that  would  make  man 
a  prisoner  in  a  world  of  time  and  sense.  The 
older  philosophy  was  fundamentally  idealistic; 

40 


THE  CAUSES  OF  REVOLT 

it  presupposed  a  universe,  significant  for  hu- 
man life,  which  was  there  to  be  accepted  or 
rejected;  it  recognized  the  spirit  in  man  as  one 
with  the  Universal  Spirit;  it  believed  in  end- 
less progression  for  the  human  spirit. 

But  for  a  generation  or  so,  our  philosophy 
has  tended  to  become  more  and  more  prag- 
matic, scientific,  economic,  democratic,  while 
the  eternal  phenomena  of  man's  inner  life  have 
been  relegated  to  the  background  as  unim- 
portant. The  result  is  that  man's  inner  nature 
has  been  starved.  He  has  become  spiritually 
anemic,  not  because  the  problems  dealt  with 
by  modern  philosophy  are  not  vitally  im- 
portant, but  because  they  do  not  comprise  the 
whole  of  life.  They  leave  out  the  realm  where 
the  spiritual  man  must  always  live  his  deepest 
life, — the  realm  of  intuition,  of  faith  and  as- 
piration. Man  must  know  what  to  do  and 
how  to  act,  but  he  craves  yet  more  the  knowl- 
edge of  who  he  really  is,  and  why  he  is  here  at 
all,  and  what  he  is  here  for.  He  needs  to  un- 
derstand himself  in  all  the  complexities  of  his 
being.  He  seeks  to  discover  the  hidden  and 
latent  powers  of  mind  and  heart  and  will.     He 

41 


SPIRIT  OF  THE  NEW  PHILOSOPHY 

longs  to  awaken  and  develop  all  that  he 
vaguely  feels  is  potential  within  him.  He 
wants  to  become  clearly,  profoundly  conscious 
of  himself,  of  his  true  Self  which  he  knows  lies 
vastly  deeper  than  any  mere  surface  self. 

It  is  because  so  much  of  our  present-day 
philosophy  is  practical  but  not  deep,  clever  but 
not  profound,  exact  but  not  comprehensive, 
dealing  with  earth  but  forgetting  heaven, 
touching  the  near  but  leaving  out  the  stars, 
concerned  with  what  is  called  real  but  blind  to 
ideals, — for  these  reasons  man,  in  the  totahty 
of  his  being,  turns  away  from  it  all  unsatisfied. 
He  knows  within  himself  that  he  is  too  big  for 
its  littlenesses,  too  broad  for  its  limitations, 
too  ideal  for  its  realities,  too  spiritual  for  its 
materialism.  It  is  far  too  inadequate  to  in- 
terpret for  him  his  infinite  universe,  his  own 
limitless  life  and  the  ideal  Kingdom  of  Heaven 
which  he  sees  in  his  loftiest  dreams.  He  is 
confident  that  there  is  far  more  of  meaning, 
even  if  it  be  mysterious  meaning,  in  his  life 
than  is  dreamt  of  in  current  philosophies. 

What  is  to   be  the   outcome?     The  philo- 

42 


THE  CAUSES  OF  REVOLT 

Sophie  task  for  to-day  does  not  eonsist  merely 
in  a  defiant  reaffirmation  of  old  faiths;  that 
would  be  to  ignore  utterly  the  law  of  progress. 
But  it  must  be  a  reconstruction  of  old  faiths 
in  terms  of  the  new  forces  that  are  shaping  our 
lives.  If  the  old  philosophic  idealism  is  in- 
adequate to  the  new  conditions,  that  does  not 
mean  that  an  arbitrary  "will  to  power,"  a 
pragmatic  self-assertiveness,  is  to  take  its 
place.  If  we  are  to  create  effectively,  it  will 
only  be  because  and  in  so  far  as  we  meet  the 
authentic  conditions  of  our  larger  world, 
spiritual  as  well  as  material.  This  means  that 
deeper  than  our  "will  to  create"  is  our  will  to 
appropriate  and  to  possess  the  world  of  ideal 
values.  It  means  that,  however  changed  in 
form  it  may  be,  idealism,  the  conviction  of  a 
significant  reahty  that  conditions  all  our  in- 
terpretations, will  still  remain  fundamental. 
The  pragmatic  reaction  against  the  idealisms 
of  the  past  has  done  its  effective  and  needed 
work.  But  the  intellectual  revolt  to-day  sug- 
gests, at  least,  that  the  time  is  ripe  for  the  ex- 
pression, in  a  new  way,  of  the  immanent  ideal- 

43 


SPIRIT  OF  THE  NEW  PHILOSOPHY 

ism  of  our  modern  life.  For  such  a  true  and 
more  adequate  philosoj^hy,  the  world  expect- 
antly waits. 

In  a  similar  way,  the  religious  revolt  is  not 
directed  against  religion  as  such,  but  against 
both  its  theological  and  ecclesiastical  expres- 
sions. Man  feels  instinctively  that  true  re- 
ligion must  be  bigger  than  its  organizations, 
better  than  its  adherents,  more  vital  than  its 
creeds  and  rituals.  There  never  was  a  time 
when  there  was  more  religion  in  the  world  than 
to-day,  but  most  of  it  is  to  be  found  outside 
of  all  accredited  organizations.  For  the  most 
part,  real  religion  is  inarticulate,  unformu- 
lated, unorganized,  and  therefore,  ineffective 
in  working  the  transformation  it  seeks.  As 
Sabatier  so  truly  says:  *"Man  is  incurably 
religious,"  and  never  more  so  than  when  he 
has  outgrown  the  old  creeds  and  is  reaching 
beyond  old  forms  for  moral  and  spiritual  val- 
ues that  the  old  no  longer  furnish.  The  future 
is  bright  indeed  with  promise  for  religion;  but 
whether  it  will  find  its  home  in  the  old  churches, 
or  will  be  forced  to  fashion  for  itself  new  chan- 
nels through  which  it  can  more  adequately  find 

44 


THE  CAUSES  OF  REVOLT 

expression,  depends  upon  the  churches  them- 
selves,— whether  they  possess  the  faith  and  the 
courage  to  adjust  themselves  to  the  new  order. 

The  religious  doubts  and  questionings  that 
fill  men's  minds  to-day  are  the  sure  indications 
of  a  living  faith  in  the  things  of  religion,  when 
once  men  have  worked  their  way  through  to 
a  positive,  constructive  belief.  The  serious 
doubts  of  to-day  are  a  far  more  healthful  sign 
than  would  be  mere  blind,  unthinking  acquies- 
cence in  the  beliefs  that  have  been.  For, 
"there  is  more  faith  in  honest  doubt  than  half 
the  creeds." 

Even  the  large  numbers  who  have  aban- 
doned the  churches  and  formed  no  new  relig- 
ious affiliations  of  any  kind,  are  not  for  that 
reason  to  be  condemned  as  being  irreligious, 
for  many  of  them  have  honestly  felt  obliged 
to  leave  the  churches  as  they  are,  in  order  to 
become  Christians.  The  religious  revolt,  in  its 
deeper  aspects,  is  clearly  a  revolt  against 
Christianity-the-system,  for  the  sake  of  the 
universal,  moral  and  spiritual  religion  that  was 
voiced  by  Jesus.  This  is  illustrated  by  the 
title  of  a  recent  article  by  one  of  the  most 

45 


SPIRIT  OF  THE  NEW  PHILOSOPHY 

thoughtfully  religious  men  in  the  country: 
"Can  Christianity  any  longer  tolerate  the 
Church?"  It  is  thus  that  the  religious  spirit 
of  to-day  has  outgrown  religion  as  expressed 
by  the  churches. 

In  international  relations,  it  is  self-evident 
that  humanity  has  consciously  outgrown  the 
old  conditions  that  have  always  held  between 
nations.  As  G.  Lowes  Dickinson  clearly 
points  out,  these  relations  have  meant  inter- 
national anarchy.  The  only  wonder  is  that 
the  world  has  tolerated  them  for  so  long. 
Each  nation  has  considered  that  it  was  a  law 
unto  itself,  and  that  any  course  of  action  was 
justified  if  only  it  had  the  power  to  pursue  it 
successfully.  The  war  has  demonstrated  that 
our  boasted  international  law  was  nothing  but 
"a  scrap  of  paper."  But  it  is  not  until  now 
that  the  world  has  demanded  that  the  old  in- 
ternational anarchy  be  replaced  by  an  inter- 
national order,  without  which  no  civilization 
can  ever  hope  to  be  stable  or  permanent. 

Thus  far  we  have  sought  to  show  that  the 
age  into  which  we  have  come  is  characterized 
throughout  by  the  spirit  of  revolt,  that  it  is 

46 


THE  CAUSES  OF  REVOLT 

practically  universal  and  that  it  involves  all 
the  realms  of  mind  and  spirit  in  which  man 
lives  his  life.  We  have  tried  to  prove  that  the 
significance  of  this  revolt  lies  in  the  fact  that 
it  proceeds  not  from  superficial  causes,  but 
from  deep-lying  sources  in  the  being  of  man 
himself.  It  is  to  be  found  everywhere  in  the 
world  to-day  simply  because  man  has  out- 
grown the  institutions,  systems,  laws,  beliefs 
and  ideals  under  which  he  has  been  living  his 
life  hitherto.  He  had  long  been  outgrowing 
them  before  the  war  came;  and  what  the  war 
has  done  has  been  to  call  into  clear  conscious- 
ness this  fact,  and  to  crystallize  man's  deter- 
mination to  fashion  for  himself  and  for  the 
world,  new  institutions,  systems,  laws,  beliefs 
and  ideals  that  will  be  more  adequate  to  his 
needs  and  more  truly  expressive  of  his  new 
spirit. 

For  this  reason  it  must  be  clear  that  no  mere 
patchwork  methods  can  succeed ;  the  time  is  far 
too  late  for  tliat.  Nothing  but  a  resolute  and 
courageous  facing  of  all  the  problems  involved 
and  the  persistent  determination  not  to  rest 
until  they  have  been  solved  right,  that  is,  in 

47 


SPIRIT  OF  THE  NEW  PHILOSOPHY 

accordance  with  the  principles  of  justice  and 
fairness  to  all,  can  ever  hope  to  satisfy  the 
spirit  of  revolt  in  the  world  to-day.  We  must 
dare  to  accustom  ourselves  to  the  thought  that 
things-as-they-have-been  must  give  place  to 
things-as-they-are-to-be.  We  must  come  to 
confidently  rejoice  that  to  us  of  this  generation 
has  been  entrusted  the  solemn  responsibility  of 
preserving  all  that  is  good  in  the  old  order,  at 
the  same  time  that  we  help  to  usher  in  the  new 
day  for  humanity. 

Because  of  the  deeper  meaning  of  the  spirit 
of  revolt,  in  revealing  man's  divine  capacity 
for  making  real  the  Kingdom  of  Heaven  here 
on  earth,  there  is  no  ground  for  fear  or  pes- 
simism, but  only  for  the  strongest  confidence 
and  the  loftiest  hopes.  The  great  ages  are 
never  the  easy  ages  in  which  to  live.  Just  be- 
cause of  its  unique  greatness,  our  age  is  pecu- 
liarly hard  and  difficult,  calling  for  the  very 
highest  qualities  of  manhood  and  womanhood. 
But  as  Phillips  Brooks  has  counseled:  "Do 
not  pray  for  easy  lives;  pray  rather  to  be 
stronger  men  and  women." 

There  are  many  to-day  who  feel  a  deep 

48 


THE  CAUSES  OF  REVOLT 

sympathy  with  the  waihng  complaint  of  Ham- 
let: 

"The  times  are  out  of  joint.     O  cursed  spite 
That  ever  I  was  born  to  set  them  right." 

These  are  the  words  of  a  coward,  however, 
never  of  the  brave  man.  The  spirit  we  need  in 
such  an  age  comes  to  us  like  a  challenge,  in 
those  ringing  words  of  Rupert  Brooke,  the 
gifted  English  poet  who  lost  his  hfe  in  the 
Mediterranean  campaign: 

"Now,  God  be  thanked,  who  has  matched  me  with  His  hour." 


49 


CHAPTER  III 

THE    DEMAND    FOR   UNITY 

"Nothing   in    the    world    is    single. 
All  things  by  a  Law  Divine 
In  one  another's  being  mingle." — Shelley. 

IT  is  not  within  the  province  of  this  work  to 
consider  in  detail  the  problems  confronting 
the  world  to-day,  to  describe  the  paths  that 
may  lead  to  the  new  order  for  humanity,  or 
even  to  suggest  the  methods  by  means  of  which 
the  needed  changes  may  be  brought  about. 
This  is  the  task  for  the  experts  and  specialists. 
What  we  are  seeking,  rather,  is  to  indicate  the 
spirit  that  animates  the  mass  of  men  every- 
where, to  outline  its  essential  nature,  to  inter- 
pret its  deeper  meaning  and  to  suggest  the 
great  goal  which,  either  consciously  or  uncon- 
sciously, it  is  earnestly  striving  to  attain. 

We  have  defined  the  spirit  of  the  age  as  the 
spirit  of  revolt  against  things-as-they-are,  a 
spirit  born  out  of  the  deep  conviction  that  man 

60 


THE  DEMAND  FOR  UNITY 

has  outgrown  the  older  civihzation  which  has 
finally  culminated  in  the  most  bitter  and 
tragic  war  of  historj^  and  is  ready  at  last  for 
such  a  reorganization  of  society  and  of  the 
world  as  shall  be  more  nearly  adequate  to  his 
needs  and  more  truly  representative  of  his 
ideals.  But  if  the  spirit  in  man  is  in  revolt 
from  things  that  have  been,  it  must,  in  just  the 
degree  that  it  is  an  intelhgent  revolt,  have  some 
actual  goal  in  sight.  It  must  be  positive  as 
well  as  negative,  constructive  as  well  as  de- 
structive; in  displacing  what  has  been  it  must 
be  prepared  to  replace  the  old  with  something 
new ;  and  it  needs  to  be  very  sure  that  its  some- 
thing new  is  better  than  the  old. 

It  is  this  that  makes  the  present  age  so  ex- 
tremely critical  for  the  future  of  humanity, 
and  it  is  at  just  this  point  that  the  world  is 
confronting  the  gravest  dangers.  There  is  no 
denying  the  fact  that  for  multitudes  the  revolt 
is  a  blind  revolt,  unthinking  and  unseeing  be- 
yond the  immediate  present  of  injustice  and 
wrong  under  which  so  many  suffer.  Men  are 
striking  out,  literally  and  figuratively,  against 
conditions  that  exist,  without  any  very  clear 

51 


SPIRIT  OF  THE  NEW  PHILOSOPHY 

idea  of  the  conditions  that  should  take  their 
place.  While  their  conscious  motives  may  not 
be  wholly  destructive,  the  sum  total  of  their 
revolt  would  prove  to  be  so  in  the  end,  and  its 
success  would  result  in  pulling  down  the  good 
rather  than  in  building  up  a  better. 

It  may  easily  be  questioned  how  many  of  the 
leaders  of  revolt  to-day,  both  in  its  passive  and 
violent  aspects,  are  far-sighted,  broad-visioned, 
deep-thinking  men,  who  thoroughly  under- 
stand their  age,  who  realize  the  significance  of 
the  mighty  forces  at  work  and  who  see  clearly 
the  goal  for  which  they  are  striving.  Un- 
fortunately, there  are  too  many  leaders  in  all 
countries  who  are,  at  heart,  mere  demagogues 
or  clever  opportunists  who  have  seized  upon 
the  general  unrest  of  the  people  and  are  prosti- 
tuting it  to  their  own  selfish  ends,  and  many 
more  whose  zeal,  however  sincere,  far  outstrips 
their  knowledge.  But  this  only  makes  all  the 
more  imperative  the  appearance  of  the  truly 
great  leaders,  the  big,  broad,  intelligent,  un- 
selfish men  and  women  who  are  willing  to  dedi- 
cate all  their  gifts  and  knowledge  to  the  wise 
and  dispassionate  guidance  and  control  of  the 

52 


THE  DEMAND  FOR  UNITY 

powerful  forces  operating  to-day  in  the  life  of 
humanity. 

But,  however  blind  or  unthinking  or  selfish 
many  may  be,  what  is  the  goal  we  are  really 
seeking?  If  we  think  we  know  what  we  are 
revolting  from,  do  we  know  what  we  are  re- 
volting to?  What  is  the  actual  end  we  need 
to  gain  if  we  are  to  truly  discover  the  right 
solution  of  our  many  complex  problems? 
What  is  the  guiding  principle  or  ideal  that 
alone  will  enable  us  to  direct  the  spirit  of  re- 
volt through  all  the  dangers  that  threaten,  to- 
ward a  new  age  that  shall  be  unmistakably  bet- 
ter than  the  old,  and  that  shall  mark,  as  we 
trust,  the  next  step  forward  for  humanity? 

Once  again,  let  us  repeat,  we  are  not  at- 
tempting any  detailed  description  in  this  con- 
nection of  the  forms  the  new  civilization  will 
present.  No  man  is  wise  enough  to  predict 
that  future  with  any  degree  of  certainty. 
What  we  seek  is  some  fundamental  principle 
upon  which  the  new  civilization  may  hope  to 
build  permanently  and  effectively  in  the  inter- 
est of  the  progress  of  all  humanity.  And  we 
find  that  principle,  which  is  at  the  same  time 

53 


SPIRIT  OF  THE  NEW  PHILOSOPHY 

an  ideal,  contained  in  the  great  word, —  Unity. 

It  matters  not  to  which  school  of  political 
thought  we  may  belong, — Tory  or  Liberal,  Re- 
publican or  Democrat,  Anarchist  or  Com- 
munist, Socialist  or  Guild  Socialist, — nor  to 
what  philosophical  or  religious  creed  we  give 
adherence,  we  venture  to  affirm  that,  underly- 
ing all  our  differing  ideals  as  to  what  the  world 
needs,  and  must  find,  in  order  to  solve  its  great 
problems,  the  fundamental  and  primary  need 
is  for  a  fuller  realization  of  some  conception 
of  unity.  We  shall  deal  in  the  next  chapter 
with  the  meaning  of  unity ;  for  the  present,  let 
us  confine  our  thought  to  the  imperative  de- 
mand of  the  age  for  some  kind  of  a  closer  unity 
in  the  life  of  mankind. 

If  the  spirit  of  revolt  is  the  striking  feature 
of  our  age,  its  demand  for  unity  is  even  more 
significant.  At  a  time  when  the  entire  world 
has  been  rent  asunder,  when,  with  few  excep- 
tions, all  the  nations  have  been  pitting  their 
maximum  of  strength  and  resources  against 
one  another,  when,  within  the  nation,  society 
is  divided  against  itself  in  a  bitter  class  strug- 
gle,   when   hatred    and    prejudice    have    dug 

54 


THE  DEMAND  FOR  UNITY 

deeper  gulfs  and  erected  more  tragic  barriers 
between  men  than  ever  existed  before,  when, 
even  with  the  coming  of  Peace,  we  seem  to  be 
witnessing  fiercer  national  rivalries  and  more 
bitter  internal  struggles  and  controversies  than 
before  the  war,  it  seems  strange,  and  yet  not 
so  strange,  that  from  the  heart  of  mankind 
should  go  forth  the  mighty  longing  for  a  unity 
that  does  not  exist  as  yet,  save  in  our  ideals. 
In  such  an  age  of  inconceivably  destructive 
disunity,  the  heart  of  humanity  is  funda- 
mentally sound  in  its  imperious  demand  for 
unit}^ 

In  spite  of  the  conditions  produced  by  the 
war,  however,  we  remember  that  the  real  be- 
ginnings, at  least,  of  an  international  organiza- 
tion had  taken  place  in  the  nineteenth  century. 
The  postal  service  and,  later,  the  cable  and 
radio  services  between  different  countries  were 
the  sure  signs  of  a  growing  sense  of  unity 
among  nations.  The  adoption,  toward  the 
close  of  the  century,  of  a  common  system  of 
weights  and  measures,  together  with  interna- 
tional federations  of  all  kinds,  had  served  to 
bind  the  various  peoples  into  a  closer  fellow- 

65 


SPIRIT  OF  THE  NEW  PHILOSOPHY 

ship.  International  congresses,  devoted  to  all 
varieties  of  interests,  had  been  multiplying 
every  year.  Even  a  World's  Parliament  of 
Religions  had  been  most  successfully  held  in 
connection  with  the  World's  Fair  in  Chicago  in 
1892.  Plans  had  been  broached  for  a  Federa- 
tion of  the  Chambers  of  Commerce  of  the  lead- 
ing cities  of  all  lands,  with  a  view  of  eventually 
organizing  a  World's  Chamber  of  Commerce. 
In  addition  to  these  public  international  organ- 
izations, it  has  been  estimated  by  a  recent 
writer  that  more  than  400  private  international 
federations  or  societies  had  come  into  being  be- 
fore the  breaking  out  of  the  war. 

The  tremendously  rapid  increase  of  travel 
between  different  lands  during  the  last  genera- 
tion, with  the  resulting  mutual  acquaintance 
between  various  peoples  and  the  better  under- 
standing of  institutions,  languages,  laws,  cus- 
toms, etc.,  of  different  countries,  the  wide- 
spread study  of  the  modern  sciences  of  com- 
parative literatures  and  comparative  religions, 
the  countless  ties  formed  through  personal 
friendships  as  well  as  through  commercial  re- 
lationships,— all  this  had  tended  to  awaken  an 

56 


THE  DEMAND  FOR  UNITY 

intelligent  appreciation  of  the  life  and  achieve- 
ments of  other  peoples,  out  of  which  had 
grown  inevitably  a  new  and  deeper  interna- 
tional sympathy. 

When  we  recall  these  facts  and  the  many 
other  indications  of  the  growing  sense  of  unity 
that  have  characterized  the  last  fifty  years,  it 
is  not  surprising  that  the  coming  of  the  war 
which,  on  the  surface,  seemed  to  be  the  com- 
plete denial  of  any  unity,  should  suggest  at 
once  to  the  progressive  minds  of  all  nations  the 
idea  of  some  sort  of  world  organization  that 
should  make  such  costly  wars  impossible  in  the 
future.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  the  soil  had  long 
been  in  preparation,  through  these  preliminary 
attempts  at  international  organization  and  the 
steadily  increasing  intercourse  between  differ- 
ent peoples,  for  an  international  organization 
that  should  take  in  all  the  political  states  of 
the  world.  Such  a  plan  was  bound  to  come, 
sooner  or  later.  The  war  simply  hastened  its 
coming. 

When  men  awoke  to  the  consciousness  that, 
in  the  supposedly  enlightened  twentieth  cen- 
tury, the  nations  of  the  world  were  still  living 

57 


SPIRIT  OF  THE  NEW  PHILOSOPHY 

in  a  state  of  international  anarchy,  and  that 
international  law  was  such  a  travesty  on  the 
name  that  the  peace  and  progress  of  the  world 
was  in  constant  danger,  it  was  inevitable  that 
the  idea  of  a  League  of  Nations  should  take 
strong  hold  of  the  imagination  and  will  of  man- 
kind with  compelling  force.  That  the  League 
at  its  birth  was  far  from  perfect  does  not 
change  the  fact  that  it  stands  for  a  real  step 
forward  in  the  direction  of  actual  unity  in  the 
world's  poHtical  organization;  and  the  way 
lies  open  for  the  people  in  the  respective  coun- 
tries to  make  it,  in  time,  a  genuine  World 
League,  not  of  Governments  but  of  Peoples, 
— a  veritable  family  of  nations  on  earth.  The 
thing  to  emphasize  is  that  all  efforts  to  achieve 
an  actual  League  of  Nations  are  really  di- 
rected toward  the  reahzation  in  fuller  measure 
of  World-Unity. 

The  international  socialists,  while  limiting 
their  efforts  to  uniting  the  workers  of  the 
world  into  one  organization,  regardless  of  na- 
tionality, are  also  inspired  by  the  ideal  of 
unity, — the  unity  of  their  class.  And  while 
the  disunity  which  the  socialists  would  create 

58 


THE  DEMAND  FOR  UNITY 

through  the  fostering  of  class  consciousness 
would  seem  to  be  opposed  to  the  idea  of  any 
general  unity,  yet  we  must  give  them  credit 
for  believing  that  the  present  disunity  is  only 
the  means  to  a  higher  unity,  when  the  workers 
of  the  world  will  comprise  the  whole  of  so- 
ciety, in  what  they  conceive  as  the  socialistic 
state. 

While,  in  a  truly  tragic  sense,  the  war  has 
served  to  destroy  for  a  time  the  large  measure 
of  unity  that  had  gradually  come  to  exist,  in 
another  sense  it  has  brought  men  and  nations 
together  in  new  bonds  of  fellowship  and  co- 
operation. On  one  hand  we  have  witnessed 
separations,  divisions,  alienations ;  on  the  other, 
we  have  seen  new  alliances,  combinations  and 
unions  of  hearts  and  hands  in  the  common 
cause.  If  the  first  results  of  the  war  have  em- 
phasized the  absence  of  unity,  the  second  have 
equally  emphasized  its  presence,  in  places  and 
to  a  degree  never  experienced  before. 

Among  the  Allied  nations,  we  have  seen  peo- 
ples banded  together  in  the  struggle  for  com- 
mon ends  who  in  former  wars  have  been 
ranged  against  each  other.     In  this  war  they 

59 


SPIRIT  OF  THE  NEW  PHILOSOPHY 

have  fought  as  loyally  for  one  another  as  at 
previous  times  they  have  fought  to  defeat  each 
other.  The  twenty  and  more  nations,  great 
and  small,  that  have  been  alhed  against  the 
Central  Powers  have  at  least  achieved  a  new 
sense  of  unity  among  themselves ;  and  it  is  not 
difficult  to  imagine  this  sense  of  unity  extended 
in  time  so  as  to  include  all  nations.  This  cer- 
tainly is  the  demand  that  the  people  are  mak- 
ing for  the  League  of  Nations  that  eventually 
shall  come  into  being. 

Within  each  nation,  the  problem  of  prob- 
lems has  been  how  to  achieve,  amid  all  the  op- 
posing parties,  conflicting  opinions  and  an- 
tagonistic interests,  that  sense  of  unity  of 
interest  and  aspiration  that  shall  lift  men 
above  the  plane  of  mere  partisanship  or  indi- 
vidual self-interest  and  bind  them  over  in 
service  to  the  common  good  of  the  Whole. 
Difficult  as  the  task  may  seem,  no  one  can 
deny  that  this  is  the  fundamental  need  of  the 
hour  in  every  land.  We  can  never  hope  to 
solve  successfully  our  internal  problems  until 
we  have  achieved  a  degree  of  unity  such  as  now 
does  not  exist.     So  long  as  we  are  satisfied 

60 


THE  DEMAND  FOR  UNITY 

to  be  forever  working  at  cross-purposes  with 
one  another,  we  need  not  expect  to  see  much 
improvement  in  present  social  conditions. 

During  the  war,  however,  a  degree  of  unity 
has  been  reahzed  that  would  have  seemed  well- 
nigh  impossible  before  the  breaking  out  of 
hostilities.  Facing  what  was  deemed  a  com- 
mon danger  and  with  a  high  sense  of  duty  to 
one's  country,  all  classes  in  society, — the  rich 
and  poor,  the  high  and  low,  employers  and  em- 
ployees,— all  sorts  and  conditions  of  men, 
women  and  even  children  have  united,  with 
singular  devotion,  to  do  their  utmost  for  the 
sake  of  winning  the  war  and  bringing  in  the 
era  of  peace.  The  spirit  of  loyal  cooperation 
that  has  found  expression  in  every  walk  of 
life, — between  capital  and  labor,  among  native 
born  and  aliens,  with  comparatively  few  ex- 
ceptions,— has  been  little  less  than  remarkable 
when  one  considers  the  various  elements  from 
all  lands  that  go  to  make  up  the  one  hundred 
millions  of  our  population. 

The  greatest  lesson  that  the  war  has  taught 
thus  far  is  the  possibihty  of  fellowship  and  co- 
operation between  diverse  and  seemingly  alien 

61 


SPIRIT  OF  THE  NEW  PHILOSOPHY 

elements  of  the  population,  that  have  been 
hitherto  undreamed  of.  The  loyal  generosity 
shown  by  the  foreign  laborers  in  this  country 
toward  the  various  Liberty  Loans,  the  Red 
Cross,  Y.  M.  C.  A.  and  numerous  other  drives, 
have  revealed  even  their  ability  to  cooperate 
in  a  common  cause  in  which  they  believed. 

In  other  words,  the  war  has  made  clear  the 
unsuspected  capacities  of  even  a  polyglot  pop- 
ulation like  ours  for  achieving  unity  of  purpose 
and  action,  at  least  in  time  of  a  great  national 
emergency  such  as  we  have  just  passed 
through.  Growing  out  of  this  encouraging 
experience  in  our  life  has  been  born  the  hope, 
more  or  less  vague  as  yet,  that  it  may  be  pos- 
sible so  to  foster  and  cultivate  this  new  spirit 
of  cooperation,  called  into  being  by  the  war, 
as  to  perpetuate  it  into  the  reconstrucaon 
period  that  now  lies  before  us,  thus  developing 
a  deeper  and  more  intelligent  spirit  of  national 
unity  than  our  country  has  known  in  the  past. 
There  is  no  true  American,  nor  true  patriot  in 
any  land,  but  realizes  that  the  fundamental 
need  of  his  country,  if  it  is  to  play  its  rightful 
part  in  building  the  new  world,  is  to  achieve 

62 


THE  DEMAND  FOR  UNITY 

within  itself  a  new  and  deeper  unity  of  pur- 
pose and  of  ideal. 

It  is  also  significant  that  the  same  great 
word  has  become  the  watchword  of  the  hour  in 
religion.  Long  before  the  war,  it  had  become 
apparent  to  many  religious  leaders  that  the 
great  crime  of  Christendom,  as  it  was  the 
source  of  the  weakness  and  ineffectiveness  of 
organized  religion,  lay  in  the  unchristian 
sectarianism  of  the  churches.  Various  com- 
missions on  Christian  Unity  had  been  formed, 
and  an  International  Congress  had  been 
planed  to  meet  in  1916,  to  consider  all  matters 
of  Faith  and  Order,  making  for  a  closer  union 
of  the  various  sects.  Whatever  may  prove  to 
be  the  ultimate  influence  of  the  war  on  religion, 
one  thing  has  already  been  clearly  demon- 
strated, viz.,  that  all  forms  of  sectarianism  are 
doomed  if  the  Church  is  to  remain  a  vital  in- 
stitution in  the  new  age.  In  the  work  carried 
on  in  the  name  of  religion,  both  in  the  camps 
at  home  and  on  the  battle-fields  of  Europe,  all 
sectarian  distinctions  and  even  names  have 
practically  been  forgotten.  And  the  millions 
who  return  to  their  respective  homes  will  care 

63 


SPIRIT  OF  THE  NEW  PHILOSOPHY 

less  than  ever  before  for  all  our  denominational 
differences. 

In  an  age  when  the  whole  world  is  slowly 
but  surely  setting  its  face  in  the  direction  of 
some  sort  of  unity,  of  what  possible  assistance 
can  the  Church  expect  to  be,  until  first  of  all 
it  has  proved  its  ability  to  achieve  a  deeper 
unity  than  now  exists  within  itself?  The  hope- 
ful sign  is  that  so  many  leaders  in  all  denomi- 
nations do  realize  that  this  is  the  pressing  duty 
of  the  hour.  They  are  speaking  out  more  and 
more  frankly,  in  spite  of  the  fact  that  they  are 
bound  to  meet  the  strenuous  opposition  of  the 
more  conservative  element  that  alwavs  seek  to 
perpetuate  the  old  organizations  just  as  they 
have  been,  in  no  wise  altered  or  changed,  even 
in  the  presence  of  the  profound  changes  that 
are  taking  place  in  every  other  department  of 
human  life. 

In  its  deeper  aspects,  however,  the  striving 
toward  religious  unity  is  vastly  more  than  the 
effort  to  bring  about  a  closer  federation  of 
church  organizations.  It  seeks  the  substratum 
of  religious  philosophy,  the  common  denomi- 
nator of  all  religions,  the  essence  of  all  creeds, 

64 


THE  DEMAND  FOR  UNITY 

the  soul  of  all  forms,  where  alone  true  unity- 
is  to  be  found.  By  minimizing  the  importance 
of  the  externals  of  religion,  it  would  place  the 
true  emphasis  on  its  inner  heart ;  by  letting  go 
its  fringe,  it  would  discover  its  real  center 
where  truth  is  one.  The  unity  sought  would 
demonstrate  to  all  that  while  religions  are 
many,  religion  is  always  one. 

The  intellectual  revolt  is,  at  heart,  animated 
by  the  same  motive.  There  is  the  instinctive 
feeling  that  somewhere,  beneath  all  our  dis- 
cordant and  contradictory  thinking  to-day, 
there  must  lie  a  common  residuum  of  truth. 
Science,  in  the  nature  of  things,  is  analytic  and 
must  be  the  work  of  highly  trained  specialists 
who  concentrate  their  attention  on  some  par- 
ticular field  of  investigation.  Philosophy,  on 
the  other  hand,  is  both  analytic  and  synthetic. 
It  gleans  its  data  from  all  fields  of  scientific 
investigation,  it  gathers  together  all  the  loose 
threads  of  fact,  and  then,  on  these  as  the 
foundation,  its  builds  its  philosophical  super- 
structure. 

But  for  fifty  years  we  have  been  living  in 
an    atmosphere    that    has    been    increasingly 

65 


SPIRIT  OF  THE  NEW  PHILOSOPHY 

scientific,  in  which  philosophy,  as  such,  has 
been  more  and  more  neglected.  Even  the 
philosophy  that  has  continued  to  hold  its  place 
has  been  predominatingly  pragmatic.  The 
inevitable  result  has  been  confusion  and  chaos 
in  human  thinking,  growing  out  of  the  lack  of 
any  clear  understanding  of  the  fundamental 
principles  of  thought,  and  the  almost  utter  ab- 
sence of  any  comprehensive  view  of  either  the 
universe  or  of  life.  No  philosophy  can  ever  be 
final,  but  every  philosophy  should  at  least 
make  some  attempt  to  be  comprehensive  in  its 
interpretation  of  the  deej^er  significance  of  the 
whole  of  life  to  man.  It  is  only  in  a  larger, 
completer  philosophy  that  the  real  unity  un- 
derlying human  thinking  can  be  found. 

The  possibilities  of  such  a  war  as  the 
twentieth  century  has  just  witnessed,  and  the 
conditions  in  which  it  leaves  the  world  both 
materially  and  spiritually,  have  forced  the 
ideal  of  some  sort  of  unity  into  the  very  fore- 
ground of  man's  thought  and  aspiration.  It 
is  no  longer  a  question  of  choice  but  an  im- 
perative duty,  solemnly  placed  upon  humanity, 
to  achieve  a  unity  that  has  never  yet  had  its 

66 


THE  DEMAND  FOR  UNITY 

place  in  the  world,  unless  we  are  to  sink  back 
to  the  plane  of  barbarism  out  of  which  man  has 
come.  If  we  are  to  continue  to  live  our  life 
as  nations  and  men  on  the  old  individualistic 
basis,  with  all  the  fierce  competitions  and 
deadly  rivalries  and  bitter  antagonisms  that 
such  selfishness  inevitably  entails,  the  future  of 
civilization  is  clearly  doomed. 

The  world  must  either  move  forward  to 
higher  ground  or  it  will  most  assuredly  move 
backwards  to  lower  planes.  In  the  light  of 
the  tragic  revelations  of  the  past  five  years, 
there  is  no  other  alternative.  It  is  either  a 
closer  unity  between  nations,  classes  and  in- 
dividuals, or  else  increasing  separations  and 
divisions,  with  wars  multiplying,  each  one 
more  deadly  than  the  last,  ending  eventually 
in  race  suicide.  It  is  this  alternative  that  the 
true  leaders  of  mankind  see  so  clearly  to-day. 

Leagues  of  Nations,  changes  in  govern- 
ments, drastic  legislation,  revision  of  systems, 
revitalizing  of  morals  and  religion, — all  these 
are  necessary  and  must  come;  but  more  pro- 
foundly necessary  than  all  else  is  a  new  sense 
of  unity,  binding  all  men  and  all  nations  into 

67 


SPIRIT  OF  THE  NEW  PHILOSOPHY 

one  great  Whole,  if  the  impending  changes  are 
to  carry  mankind  toward  higher  planes  of  life 
and  infuse  all  civilization  with  a  new  and 
nobler  spirit. 

The  spirit  of  revolt,  which  so  distinguishes 
our  age  from  all  others,  both  in  the  breadth  of 
its  influence  and  the  depth  of  its  sources,  is  the 
spirit  of  rebellion  against  the  confusion  and 
uncertainty,  the  struggle  and  strife,  the  fric- 
tion and  antagonism,  the  divisions  and  separa- 
tions, the  misunderstandings  and  bitterness, 
the  prejudice  and  hatred  with  which  our 
modern  age  is  so  rife.  In  a  word,  it  is  the 
determined  revolt  against  the  tragic  disunity 
which  is  destroying  the  very  foundations  of 
civilization,  blighting  the  most  priceless  treas- 
ures in  human  life  and  delaying  the  realization 
of  the  Kingdom  of  Heaven  here  on  earth. 

So  long  as  rulers  plan  in  the  old  spirit,  and 
statesmen  chatter  in  the  old  jargon,  and  di- 
plomacy follows  the  old  rules,  and  public 
teachers  preach  the  old  ideals,  and  employers 
,  are  absorbed  in  their  own  interests,  and  the 
few  who  have  are  content  that  the  many  should 
not  have,  and  churches  care  more  for  them- 

68 


THE  DEMAND  FOR  UNITY 

selve  than  for  the  Kingdom  of  Heaven, — just 
so  long  will  simple  justice  fail  of  realization; 
the  disunity  in  modern  life  will  multiply  in- 
creasingly, while  the  spirit  of  revolt  will 
steadily  grow  more  bitter  and  intense  until, 
finally,  the  breaking  point  is  reached.  If  that 
time  should  ever  come,  owing  to  the  blindness 
and  selfishness  of  those  who  should  be  the  real 
leaders,  but  are  not,  the  sufferings  of  the  Great 
War  would  fade  into  insignificance  as  com- 
pared with  the  experiences  upon  which  human- 
ity would  then  be  forced  to  enter. 

We  do  not  and  need  not  take  so  pessimistic 
a  view  of  the  situation,  however,  for  there  are 
many  signs  of  hope  upon  the  horizon.  The 
spirit  of  revolt  fills  the  world,  the  protests 
against  things-as-they-are  multiply  among  all 
classes  and  conditions  of  men,  the  ideal  of  a 
new  and  all-inclusive  unity  is  emerging  more 
clearly,  the  new  spirit  is  certainly  awakening, 
and  the  new  and  nobler  leaders  will  surely 
appear  when  the  time  is  fully  ripe. 


69 


CHAPTER  IV 

THE    MEANING   OF   UNITY 

"Go,  sweep  out  the  chamber  of  your  heart. 
Make   it  ready   to   be   the   dwelling-place  of  the  Beloved. 
When  you  depart  out,  he  will  enter  in. 
In  you,  void  of  your  self,  will  he  display  his  beauty." — Anon. 

IT  is  not  enough,  however,  merely  to  name 
an  ideal;  we  must  be  able  to  define  it 
clearly,  before  it  can  become  a  dynamic  power 
in  life.  It  is  not  the  word,  but  its  actual  con- 
tent, that  must  be  fully  grasped  and  under- 
stood before  the  ideal  stands  any  chance  of 
realization. 

Unity,  like  the  words,  democracy,  freedom, 
equality,  is  a  word  that  has  come  to  enshrine 
certain  great  ideals  of  humanity.  As  such,  it 
is  being  used  to-day  more  widely  than  ever. 
But  the  danger  in  any  word  that  thus  becomes 
popular  in  current  speech  is  that  so  many  are 
apt  to  use  it  glibly  enough  without  stopping 
to  inquire  seriously  as   to  its  true  meaning. 

70 


THE  MEANING  OF  UNITY 

And  there  is  something  wonderfulfy  alluring 
in  just  the  sound  of  the  word, — Unity, — to  an 
age  so  sadly  rent  asunder  by  divisions  of  every 
kind. 

As  a  matter  of  fact,  the  word  is  by  no  means 
new  to  this  age.  Great  philosophers  in  the 
past  have  discussed  the  essential  unity  of  hu- 
manity. Great  statesmen  have  worked  earn- 
estly for  a  world  organization  that  should  en- 
sure the  permanent  peace  of  mankind.  Great 
souls  have  dreamed  of  a  closer  social  unity  and 
dedicated  their  lives  to  its  achievement.  Great 
prophets  have  prayed  and  toiled  for  the  com- 
ing of  rehgious  unity,  and  in  every  age  there 
have  always  been  the  elect  souls  who  have  not 
only  beheved  in  but  actually  practised  such 
unity.  But  while  none  of  these  have  lived  to 
see  their  lofty  dreams  realized,  we  can  in  no 
sense  regard  their  lives  as  failures,  for  they 
have  bravely  held  up  the  torch  of  the  ideal  to 
their  respective  generations;  and  we  can  see 
now  that  they  have  only  been  the  divinely  sent 
forerunners  of  a  mighty  movement  that  is 
rapidly  becoming  world-wide  to-day. 

That  these  ideals  have  never  received  the 

71 


SPIRIT  OF  THE  NEW  PHILOSOPHY 

attention  they  deserved  is,  primarily,  due  to 
the  fact  that  the  world  has  never  before  been 
prepared  to  consider  them  seriously.  From 
the  time  of  Jesus  of  Nazareth,  whose  message 
was  couched  only  in  terms  of  the  universals  of 
life,  and  whose  great  purpose  was  to  awaken 
in  the  hearts  of  men  the  sense  of  unity  with 
All-that-is,  these  ideals  have  always  been  in 
the  world.  But  men  were  blind  to  the  mean- 
ing of  his  real  message  then,  even  as  so  many 
who  profess  his  name  are  still  blind  or  indif- 
ferent to-day.  But  the  heart  of  the  people, 
who  always  heard  him  gladly,  is  interpreting 
his  message  afresh,  not  in  theological  or  ec- 
clesiastical terms,  but  in  his  own  terms  of  life 
and  unity  and  power.  So  that  it  is  no  longer 
the  select  few  who  are  reading  his  message 
aright,  but  the  rank  and  file  of  earnest,  truth- 
seeking  men  and  women  everywhere. 

Still  another  reason  why  the  ideals  enshrined 
in  the  conception  of  unity  are  claiming  more 
serious  attention  than  ever  before,  is  because 
there  have  never  been  such  all-compelling  in- 
centives, forcing  men  to  achieve  a  closer  unity 
lest  a  worse  fate  befall  them.     Man's  greatest 

72 


THE  MEANING  OF  UNITY 

strides  in  moral  and  spiritual  development 
have  always  been  made  under  the  driving  com- 
pulsions of  suffering  and  sacrifice.  The  race, 
like  the  individual,  learns  its  deepest  lessons  in 
the  school  of  pain;  this  is  one  of  the  laws  of 
progress;  we  must  always  pay  the  price  for 
what  we  gain.  It  is  not  strange,  then,  that 
all  the  sacrifices  of  the  past  few  years  should 
have  opened  men's  eyes  to  the  truth,  as  the 
great  messages  of  prophet  and  sage  have  failed 
to  do,  compelling  them  now  to  seek  that  unity 
in  life  without  which  they  feel  instinctively 
life  will  not  be  worth  the  living. 

It  must  also  be  admitted  that,  many  times 
in  the  past,  the  ideals  of  unity  have  been  pre- 
sented in  such  a  way  that  thoughtful  men  have 
felt  obliged  to  regard  them  as  impractical  and 
visionary.  Those  who  have  voiced  them,  in 
perfect  sincerity,  have  not  always  clearly  per- 
ceived their  meaning,  and  too  often  they  have 
deserved  the  name  of  being  "mere  sentiment- 
alists." Ideals  often  suffer  most  at  the  hands 
of  their  friends  and  exponents.  It  is  enlight- 
ening, however,  to  remember  that  ideals,  re- 
garded as  utterly  impractical  and  visionary  by 

73 


SPIRIT  OF  THE  NEW  PHILOSOPHY 

one  age,  come  to  be  accepted  as  the  only  ideals 
worth  having  by  a  later  generation.  History 
reveals  more  than  once  that  the  "impractical 
visionary"  has  eventually  proved  to  be  the 
most  practical  of  guides.  Jesus  of  Nazareth 
has  suffered  the  fate  of  all  "visionary  dream- 
ers" until  to-day,  when  he  seems  to  be  coming 
into  his  own  at  last.  The  term  "practical" 
is  purely  a  relative  term  after  all.  Anything 
may  be  practical  when  men  are  ready  to  re- 
gard it  as  such  and  willing  to  put  it  to  the 
actual  test;  and  anything  may  be  impractical, 
so  long  as  men  are  unwilling  to  test  it  out  in 
actual  experience. 

Can  we  formulate  in  general  terms  the 
meaning  that  we  put  into  the  ideal  of  unity 
for  the  new  age?  Our  conception  of  the  prin- 
ciple of  unity  is  an  organic  rather  than  an 
individualistic  conception.  It  means  union, — 
the  union  of  individuals  who  know  themselves 
to  be  vital  and  necessary  parts  of  a  larger 
Whole,  in  the  loyal  service  of  that  Whole,  and 
this,  without  the  surrender  of  their  uniqueness 
as  individuals.  It  involves  the  highest  and 
fullest  development  of  each  individual,  not  for 

74 


THE  MEANING  OF  UNITY 

his  sake  alone,  but  because  only  through  his 
highest  development  can  he  perform  his  true 
function  as  a  member  of  the  Whole,  and 
render  the  largest  possible  service  to  the  good 
of  the  Whole.  It  is  the  union  of  all,  in  the 
service  of  all,  for  the  sake  of  all. 

Before  proceeding  to  consider  in  detail  the 
positive  content  of  this  ideal  of  unity,  there 
are  certain  things  with  which  unity  is  often 
confused  that  can  be  ruled  out  at  once. 
Unity,  for  example,  does  not  mean  sameness. 
It  is  not  a  mathematical  unity  that  we  seek. 
When  we  speak  of  the  oneness  that  unites  in- 
dividuals or  binds  nations  or  races  together, 
we  do  not  imply  that  individuals  or  nations  or 
races  are  each,  in  any  sense,  the  "double"  of 
other  individuals  or  nations  or  races.  People 
or  nations  are  not  one,  in  the  sense  that  two 
bricks  may  be  equal  in  measurement,  weight 
or  quality,  simply  for  the  reason  that  society 
is  a  living  organism,  not  a  heap  of  sand. 

Neither  is  the  ideal,  of  which  we  conceive, 
a  mechanical  unity.  In  the  elaboration  of 
organization  in  modern  times  and  in  our  striv- 
ing to  perfect  what  we  call  "efficiency,"  there 

76 


SPIRIT  OF  THE  NEW  PHILOSOPHY 

is  a  strong  tendency  to  produce  a  kind  of 
machine-made  man.  We  are  standardizing 
everything  to-day,  even  human  individuals. 
In  our  educational  systems  we  have  become 
so  mechanical  oftentimes  as  to  think  we 
have  reached  the  highest  goal  when  we  have 
successfully  standardized  our  curricula,  our 
textbooks,  our  methods  of  instruction  and 
even  the  ideas  of  the  pupils.  A  curious  at- 
tempt was  recently  made  in  the  New  York 
City  schools,  actually  to  standardize  the 
thinking  of  the  boys  and  girls  in  the  interpre- 
tation of  history  and  current  events  as  given 
to  them  by  their  instructors.  We  classify 
men  and  women  as  commodities  and  approxi- 
mate them  to  mere  items  in  an  industrial 
mechanism;  so  that  if  anything  happens  to  a 
worker,  one  may  quickly  be  substituted  for  an- 
other, as  if  they  were  screws  in  a  machine.  It 
is  this  mechanical  conception  of  unity  that  so 
many  resent,  and  most  rightfully,  for  such  an 
unity  is  profoundly  contradictory  and  utterly 
subversive  of  manhood  and  of  life. 

Unity,  once  again,  is  not  uniformity,  as  so 
many  infer.     It  is  not  something  produced  by 

76 


THE  MEANING  OF  UNITY 

any  leveling  process,  either  up  or  down.  All 
levels  are,  of  necessity,  "dead  levels,"  from 
which  the  life  element  has  vanished.  A  tree 
may  be  pruned  to  a  certain  shape  easily 
enough,  but  if  it  is  alive,  in  a  week's  time  the 
artificial  outline  will  have  disappeared.  It  is 
not  possible  to  "level"  a  hving  thing.  Uni- 
formity implies  the  use  of  a  mold  under  pres- 
sure; it  always  involves  to  some  extent,  com- 
mensurate with  the  pressure,  the  crushing  out 
of  individuality.  No  true  vision  of  life  offers 
such  a  view  as  this.  No  sane  reformer  is 
working  for  such  a  unity  as  this.  As  Emerson 
said,  every  man  who  is  worthy  of  the  name  is 
a  non-conformist.  He  will  not  be  coerced  into 
any  pattern.  There  is  a  boundary  to  the 
dominion  of  organization;  there  is  a  limit  to 
sufferance.  When  that  hmit  is  reached,  the 
situation  becomes  intolerable,  and  the  most 
docile  of  men  finds  himself  a  revolutionary. 
All  of  which,  obviously,  is  healthful  and  tends 
lifeward. 

Unity  is  not  to  be  found  in  any  externals, 
nor  yet  in  those  internal  qualities  which  are 
more  immediately  manifested  and  perceived. 

77 


SPIRIT  OF  THE  NEW  PHILOSOPHY 

Unity  does  not  mean,  then,  oneness  in  natural 
gifts  or  ability.  If  individuals  were  to  be 
stripped  clean  of  all  things  externally  attached, 
— titles,  fame,  home,  lands,  possessions  and 
even  bodies — they  would  not  appear  precisely 
one  in  size,  capacity,  quality,  or  texture  of 
mind  or  heart  or  soul.  In  these  deeper  areas 
we  still  find  differences.  From  any  external 
view-point,  there  are  great  souls  and  little 
souls,  noble  souls  and  mean  souls,  souls  of  fine 
texture  and  souls  of  coarse  texture.  There 
are  men  of  extraordinary  spiritual  vision,  and 
men  of  practically  no  spiritual  vision  what- 
ever; men  who  are  expansive,  dynamic  centers 
of  moral  force,  and  others  who  are  passive  and 
inert.  So  there  are  bright  minds  and  dull 
minds,  quick  minds  and  slow  minds,  broad 
minds  and  narrow  minds.  The  simple  fact  is 
that  individuals  are  not  one  in  physical 
strength,  in  mental  ability,  in  heart  power,  in 
soul  force, — that  is,  viewed  from  without. 

The  same  thing  is  true  of  races  and  of  na- 
tions; and,  in  a  less  noticeable  degree,  of  dif- 
ferent communities  within  the  nation.  There 
are  racial  gifts,  and  characteristic  peculiarities 

78 


THE  MEANING  OF  UNITY 

belonging  to  certain  peoples  and  not  possessed 
by  other  peoples.  We  contrast  the  Orient 
with  the  Occident,  and  the  mind  visualizes  at 
once  two  very  different  kinds  of  civilizations. 
Or  we  emphasize  the  distinctive  characteristics 
of  the  Slavic,  the  Teutonic,  the  Latin  or  the 
Anglo-Saxon  peoples. 

Still,  in  spite  of  all  that  can  be  truly  said 
of  racial  distinctions,  national  traits  and  in- 
dividual differences,  there  can  be  no  question 
but  that  some  kind  of  unity  does  lie  at  the  basis 
of  the  life  of  humanity,  and  that  it  binds  all 
races,  nations  and  individuals  into  one  great 
Whole,  if  we  could  only  clearly  perceive  it. 
In  what  sense  can  unity  be  predicated  of  men 
and  women,  of  nations  and  races,  so  different 
in  place,  in  function,  in  gift,  in  capacity,  in 
ability,  in  development,  in  experience,  in  at- 
tainment? Let  us  examine  more  in  detail  the 
organic  conception  of  unity  which  we  have  al- 
ready outhned,  and  inquire  as  to  its  deeper 
meaning  and  the  method  of  its  realization. 

At  the  very  outset,  let  it  clearly  be  under- 
stood that  the  unity  which  all  tlie  world  is,  con- 
sciously or  unconsciously,  seeking  can  never 

79 


SPIRIT  OF  THE  NEW  PHILOSOPHY 

be  learned  in  colleges,  or  found  in  sermons,  or 
discovered  in  books.  It  cannot  be  found  any- 
where without,  but  only  in  a  man's  own  inner 
life.  It  cannot  be  imparted  by  another,  but 
must  be  discovered,  each  for  himself.  It  is 
not  an  acquirement,  but  an  achievement.  It 
is  not  found  at  the  end  of  a  syllogism  or  in  the 
conclusion  of  any  argument,  but  only  through 
an  inner  experience.  It  is  not  a  fact  of  science 
merely,  or  of  history,  or  philosophy,  though  all 
these  may  constitute  helpful  aids  in  its  dis- 
covery. It  is,  rather,  a  fact  of  consciousness, 
a  feeling,  a  realization  that  has  been  experi- 
enced by  many  in  the  past  and  can  be  experi- 
enced by  all.  Unity  does  not  become  real  for 
any  one,  simply  because  he  talks  about  it,  or 
professes  to  believe  in  it,  or  even  sincerely  de- 
sires it.  It  is  a  reality  only  when  one  comes 
to  know  it  in  actual  experience,  is  conscious  of 
it  daily  and  hourly,  and  has  learned  to  love  it 
as  one  loves  life  itself. 

The  experiences  of  the  truly  great  souls  of 
the  race  throw  a  flood  of  light  on  the  true  mean- 
ing of  that  unity  that  has  become  an  actual  ex- 
perience and  is  a  living  fact  in  the  inner  con- 

80 


THE  MEANING  OF  UNITY 

sciousness.  Buddha,  Socrates,  Paul,  Plot- 
inus,  St.  Francis  of  Assisi,  Bruno,  Tolstoi, 
Emerson,  Walt  Whitman,  Abraham  Lincoln, 
and  above  them  all,  because  his  consciousness 
was  clearer  and  more  profound  than  all,  Jesus 
of  Nazareth, — these  have  been  the  world's 
great  path-finders  in  the  realization  of  the  true 
ideal  of  unity. 

From  such  lives  we  learn  that  the  sense  of 
unity  that  has  become  a  fact  in  consciousness 
grows  out  of  the  reahzation,  so  profound  that 
it  has  become  habitual,  that  "all-that-is"  flows 
forth  from  the  same  great  source  of  Life ;  that, 
in  their  origin,  all  who  live,  move  and  have  be- 
ing proceed  from  the  One  Parent-Source.  It 
makes  little  difference  whether  we  call  that 
Source,  Life,  or  Force,  or  Mind,  or  First 
Cause,  or  Universal  Substance,  or  by  the  more 
familiar  name  of  God.  The  fact  remains  that 
the  same  life  flows  in  all  our  veins  and,  in  the 
last  analysis,  the  same  infinite  Energy  has 
found  individualized  expression  in  all  races, 
all  nations,  all  men  and  women.  It  was  be- 
cause of  this  habitual  consciousness  that,  for 
Jesus  wholl}',  and  nineteen  centuries  later,  for 

81 


SPIRIT  OF  THE  NEW  PHILOSOPHY 

Walt  Whitman  in  a  striking  degree,  there  was 
no  Jew  nor  Gentile,  no  Greek  nor  Barbarian, 
no  bond  nor  free,  no  privileged  ones  nor  out- 
casts, no  good  nor  bad,  but  only  the  children 
of  the  Universal  Father. 

While  this  has  been  the  professed  belief  of 
Christendom  for  centuries,  conditions  prevail- 
ing in  the  world  to-day  only  prove  that  its  pro- 
found truth  has  never  yet  been  experienced 
save  by  the  very  few.  Like  so  many  mere  be- 
liefs, it  has  been  an  idea  to  argue  and  discuss, 
but  not  an  ideal  to  be  realized.  It  has  had  its 
place  in  man's  intellectual  life,  but  it  has  never 
yet  become  a  dynamic  power  in  his  volitional 
hfe.  It  has  been  a  theoretical,  not  an  experi- 
enced, truth  of  consciousness. 

When  men  come  really  to  know,  not  simply 
believe,  the  truth  of  the  Universal  Fatherhood 
of  God,  with  all  that  those  words  imply,  hu- 
manity will  have  taken  a  long  step  toward  the 
realization  of  that  unity  the  world  craves  so 
earnestly  to-day.  If  Religion  could  but  suc- 
ceed in  translating  this  one  truth,  which  is  the 
fundamental  truth  in  all  the  great  World- 
Faiths,    into   actual   terms    of   experience,    it 

82 


THE  MEANING  OF  UNITY 

would  have  achieved  its  real  purpose  in  the 
w^orld.  The  Gospel  of  God's  Fatherhood  as 
the  Universal  Source  of  all-that-is,  the  Eternal 
Energy  in  all  men,  the  Soul  of  all  souls,  fully 
grasped  and  clearly  proclaimed,  would  be  the 
only  Gospel  needed  to  save  the  world  from  the 
disunity  that  now  divides  it  so  sadly. 

But  again,  the  sense  of  unity  that  has  be- 
come a  fact  of  consciousness  grows  out  of  a 
profound  realization  that  humanity  is  a  living 
organism,  in  which  all  races,  all  nations,  all 
communities  and  all  individuals  are  but  the  in- 
tegral and  necessary  parts,  organs  or  members, 
"for  we  are  all  members  one  of  another."  We 
are  all  one,  in  the  sense  that  we  each  have  a 
place  and  a  function  within  the  Whole;  and 
each  of  us,  functioning  in  his  place,  is  neces- 
sary to  the  complete  and  harmonious  working 
of  the  Whole.  Our  unity,  then,  is  the  unity  of 
service  to,  or  function  within,  the  living  body 
of  humanity. 

Let  us  take  the  analogy  of  the  human  body. 
There  is  no  external  unity  between  the  great 
muscle  which  flexes  the  fighting  arm  and  the 
tiny  muscle  which  moves  the  eyelid  or  com- 

83 


SPIRIT  OF  THE  NEW  PHILOSOPHY 

presses  the  tear-gland ;  yet,  on  the  basis  of  serv- 
ice rendered,  each  is  made  one  with  the  other 
by  the  body's  imperative  need  of  each.  The 
fighting  arm  would  not  be  of  much  service,  if 
the  due  compression  of  the  tear-gland  did  not 
keep  the  eye  cleansed  and  clear.  In  the  same 
way,  the  pieces  on  a  chess-board  are  not  one  in 
value  as  they  stand ;  but  for  the  purpose  of  the 
combination  by  which  the  player  makes  a  bid 
for  victory,  each  piece,  from  lowest  to  highest, 
is  bound  in  closest  unity  to  all  the  rest,  in  the 
sense  that  the  combination  works  equally 
through  each,  and  apart  from  the  exercise  of 
the  position  and  capacity  of  each  at  its  fullest, 
the  combination  will  break  down  and  the  player 
will  lose  the  game. 

These  illustrations  will  serve  to  make  clear 
what  we  mean  by  the  modern  conception  of 
humanity  as  a  hving  organism.  This  organic 
conception  of  society  is  held  by  all  our  fore- 
most social  philosophers  and  writers.  It  con- 
stitutes the  greatest  gain  for  modern  thought, 
and  has  furnished  the  new  social  view-point 
from  which  we  approach  every  problem  to-day. 
It  has  created  the  new  motive  that  is  inspiring 

84 


THE  MEANING  OF  UNITY 

all  leaders  in  their  efforts  to  bring  about  a 
more  complete  socialization  of  the  life  of  man- 
kind, in  all  the  ranges  of  its  activity.  It  is  the 
dynamic  power  behind  every  new  social  pro- 
gram proposed,  however  crude  and  imperfect 
it  may  prove  to  be.  The  so-called  social  move- 
ment, that  constitutes  the  real  heart  of  the  age, 
in  all  its  many  different  expressions,  is  simply 
the  outgrowth  of  this  new  social  view-point 
that  we  are  all  members  together  in  the 
living  body  of  humanity,  that  we  all  play  a 
necessary  part  and  discharge  an  indispensable 
function;  and  that,  therefore,  the  living  body 
would  be  left  incomplete  and  imperfect  if  any 
of  its  members  should  be  subtracted  there- 
from, or  if  any  of  them  should  fail  to  function 
in  the  highest  degree  commensurate  with  their 
place  and  abihty. 

The  human  body  is  well  and  strong  and 
healthful  only  when  every  organ,  muscle, 
member,  and  part  is  strong  and  healthful, 
and  when  all  of  these  are  working  together 
in  truest  harmony  for  the  perfect  symmetry 
of  the  body  as  a  whole.  The  brain  must 
be  the  best  kind  of  a  brain,  the  heart  the 

85 


SPIRIT  OF  THE  NEW  PHILOSOPHY 

best  kind  of  a  heart,  the  stomach  the  best  kind 
of  a  stomach,  the  eye,  the  hand  and  the  foot 
must  be  the  best  kind  of  eye,  hand  and  foot, 
if  there  is  to  be  complete  health  and  unity  in 
the  body.  The  brain,  heart,  stomach,  eye,  etc., 
must  be,  each  one  itself,  not  another.  The 
unity  of  the  body  does  not  exist  when  all  these 
organs,  members,  parts  are  one  in  shape,  size, 
function  or  capacity,  but  only  when  all,  in  spite 
of  every  difference,  are  one  in  serving  the  liv- 
ing organism  of  which  they  are  all  necessary 
parts. 

So  with  the  body  of  humanity.  The  unity 
that  underlies  all  racial,  national  and  indi- 
vidual differences  is  a  unity,  not  of  place  or 
function  or  ability  or  language  or  institutions 
or  customs  or  morals  or  religion  or  degree  of 
development,  but  a  unity  of  service,  rising  out 
of  the  fact  that  we  are  all  literally  members 
one  of  another,  all  necessary  and  indispensable 
parts  of  the  living  organism  we  call  humanity. 

This  is  not  to  say,  however,  that  our  true 
unity  depends  on  the  fact  that  all  forms  of 
service  rendered  by  different  races,  nations  or 
individuals  are  the  same;  neither  if  one  form 

86 


THE  MEANING  OF  UNITY 

of  service  is  compared  externally  with  another 
in  range  and  effect,  is  all  service  equal.  Com- 
monsense  forbids  of  our  thinking  of  the  plow- 
man, when  viewed  as  such,  as  equal  to  the 
great  poet,  or  the  office-boy  as  equal  to  the 
statesman.     But  as  Browning  reminds  us: 

"All   service  ranks  the  same  with  God." 

Our  true  spiritual  unity  grows  out  of  the  fact 
that  all  types  of  service  "rank  the  same"  from 
the  view-point  of  the  Whole,  that  is,  it  is  all 
necessary  to  the  Whole,  and  therefore  "one" 
with  all  forms  of  service  rendered. 

It  is  self-evident  that  this  unity  is  not  an 
external  or  visible  thing,  but  an  inner,  invisi- 
ble, spiritual  fact,  to  be  perceived,  if  at  all,  by 
the  spiritual  consciousness  in  man.  It  is  rec- 
ognized by  all  that  there  is  a  physical  unity 
binding  men  together;  but  this  unity  on  the 
physical  plane  also  binds  man  to  the  animals 
and  even  to  inanimate  nature,  for  all  bodies, 
from  stones  to  man,  are  formed  of  the  same 
material  stuff.  The  physical  unity  of  all- 
that-is  has  been  bequeathed  to  all  alike;  it  is 
in  no  sense  an  achievement  on  our  part,  neither 

87 


SPIRIT  OF  THE  NEW  PHILOSOPHY 

does  it  ever  make,  in  and  of  itself,  for  that 
higher  spiritual  unity  the  world  is  seeking  to- 
day. This  higher  unity  has  been  left  for  man 
to  achieve  in  the  great  school  of  experience, 
unaided  by  nature.  For  this  reason  it  repre- 
sents the  supremest  achievement  of  which  man 
is  capable.  To  enter  into  the  realization  of 
this  spiritual  unity  of  all-that-is  and  of  all  who 
live,  is,  therefore,  the  summum  honum  of  life, 
the  goal  of  all  man's  age-long  striving. 

The  fundamental  thing  in  religion,  of  what- 
soever name,  is  this  consciousness  of  one's  unity 
with  All-that-is,  in  which  all  sense  of  separate- 
ness  and  division  from  God  or  man  has  van- 
ished forever.  This  has  been  the  experience 
of  all  the  great  spiritual  seers  of  the  race,  and 
to  this  inner  knowledge  have  they  sought  to 
summon  their  fellows.  The  awakening  to  this 
consciousness  constitutes  the  "new  birth"  of 
religion.  "Ye  must  be  born  again,"  said 
Jesus,  in  order  to  realize  your  oneness  with 
God  and  your  fellows  everywhere.  The  es- 
sence of  salvation  consists,  not  in  being  saved 
from  some  future  punishment,  but  in  being 
saved  here  and  now  to  this  sense  of  one's  unity 

88 


THE  MEANING  OF  UNITY 

with  All.  If  this  conception  of  salvation  had 
been  the  burden  of  the  Churches'  message  in 
the  past,  Christendom  would  not  be  facing  the 
conditions  it  does  to-day. 

There  are  many  people  throughout  the 
world  who  are  earnestly  seeking  this  experi- 
ence,— the  consciousness  of  their  spiritual  unity 
with  All;  there  are  many  others  who  are  more 
or  less  blindly  feeling  after  it,  and  there  are 
still  multitudes  to  whom  it  is,  as  yet,  quite 
meaningless.  But  the  experience  will  come  in 
response  to  the  intense  desire,  when  once  it 
has  been  awakened.  The  evidence  is  increas- 
ing daily  that  men  and  women  in  all  lands  are 
catching  the  vision  of  what  lies  before  them  in 
the  way  of  spiritual  development,  and  are  be- 
ginning to  reach  forth  earnestly  toward  the 
great  experience.  It  is  this  that  makes  us 
dare  to  believe  that  humanity  is  even  now  on 
the  threshold  of  a  new  awakening  in  the  realm 
of  consciousness  that  will  make  inevitable  the 
coming  of  the  ncAv  age  for  the  world. 

Because  of  the  criticalness  of  the  present 
hour,  it  would  seem  that  there  could  be  no 
other  purpose  in  the  pursuit  of  science,  or 

89 


SPIRIT  OF  THE  NEW  PHILOSOPHY 

philosophy,  or  reUgion,  or  business,  or  any- 
thing else  that  appeals  to  man,  save  the  attain- 
ment of  this  higher  consciousness.  But  it 
must  needs  be  remembered  that  the  unceasing 
practise  of  rites  and  ceremonies,  of  contempla- 
tion, renunciation,  prayers,  fasting,  penance, 
devotion,  adoration,  abstemiousness  or  isola- 
tion to  which  many  have  had  recourse,  will  not 
in  and  of  themselves  ensure  the  attainment  of 
this  state  of  consciousness.  It  is  not  a  matter 
of  bartering;  there  is  no  assurance  that  it  will 
come  as  a  reward  for  good  conduct. 

"The  wind  bloweth  where  it  listeth,  and  ye 
know  not  whence  it  cometh  or  whither  it  goeth. 
So  is  every  one  who  is  born  of  the  Spirit." 
No  golden  promises  of  speedy  entrance  into 
this  experience  may  be  given  the  earnest 
seeker ;  nor  any  exact  rules,  or  laws  of  equation 
by  virtue  of  which  the  goal  may  be  reached. 
Nor  yet  may  any  time  be  specifically  named  in 
which  the  awakening  may  come  either  to  the 
individual  or  the  race.  "The  Son  of  Man 
cometh  as  a  thief  in  the  night.  Therefore  be 
ye  ready."  The  "new  birth"  means  nothing 
else  than  the  rising  of  the  Son  of  Man  into 

90 


THE  MEANING  OF  UNITY 

being  within,  as  one  awakens  to  tliis  higher  con- 
sciousness. 

Many,  very  many  on  earth  to-day,  are  living 
so  close  to  the  borderland  of  the  new  birth  that 
they  frequently  catch  fleeting  glimpses  of  the 
longed  for  freedom,  but  the  full  import  of  its 
meaning  is  withheld  as  yet.  There  is  another 
veil,  however  thin,  between  them  and  the  full- 
orbed  Light.  Buddha  spent  seven  years  in  an 
intense  longing  and  desire  to  attain  that  libera- 
tion which  brought  him  at  last  to  this  conscious- 
ness. Jesus  became  a  Christ  only  after  pass- 
ing through  the  agonies  of  Gethsemane.  The 
essential  thing  needed  is  patient  desire  and  the 
expectant  mood. 

Certainly  the  world's  heart  is  filled  to-day 
with  an  intense  longing  for  something  better, 
even  though  so  many  know  not  what  it  is  they 
seek.  If  the  inarticulate  longings  and  un- 
formulated desires  that  fill  so  many  minds  and 
hearts,  could  but  be  centered,  in  the  calm,  con- 
fident and  expectant  mood,  on  the  attainment 
of  that  sense  of  unity  which  is  a  realized  fact 
in  human  consciousness,  there  is  no  question 
but  that  the  new  day  would  speedily  dawn. 

91 


SPIRIT  OF  THE  NEW  PHILOSOPHY 

In  all  spiritual  writings  we  find  the  con- 
clusion that  there  is  no  one  way  by  which  the 
seeker  may  enter  into  this  consciousness.  But 
with  singular  unanimity,  the  seers  of  all  ages 
agree,  that  while  the  form  of  the  experience 
may  differ,  the  pathway  to  the  experience  is 
ever  and  always  the  pathway  of  love,  through 
contemplation  of  and  desire  for  a  more  un- 
selfish, disinterested  love.  Whether  this  love 
be  expressed  in  the  awakening  of  the  creative 
life,  as  in  nature's  spring  time,  or  as  the  love 
of  lover  for  his  bride,  or  of  mother  for  her 
child,  or  of  the  humanitarian  for  the  suffering 
outcasts,  or  the  love  for  an  ideal  forever  in- 
accessible, or  the  love  for  some  great  Cause, 
the  key  that  seemingly  unlocks  the  door  to  the 
coming  of  the  consciousness  of  spiritual  one- 
ness with  All,  is  Love,  "the  maker  and  mon- 
arch and  saviour  of  all." 

This  explains  the  supreme  place  given  to 
Love  by  Jesus,  in  all  his  teachings,  and  his 
smnming  up  of  all  the  law  and  the  prophets 
in  the  one  new  commandment  of  Love.  He 
understood  more  clearly  than  all  others  that  it 
is  Love  that  breaks  down  all  barriers,  destroys 

92 


THE  MEANING  OF  UNITY 

all  partition  walls,  fills  in  all  gulfs,  wipes  out 
all  sense  of  separateness  and  isolation  and  that, 
therefore,  makes  possible  as  nothing  else  the 
awakening  of  the  higher  consciousness  in  man. 
It  is  this  that  makes  him  the  Saviour  Supreme 
of  human  life. 


93 


CHAPTER  V 

UNITY   WITHIN    ONESELF 

"I  sought  for  God 
But  God  eluded  me; 
I   sought  my   brother 
But   I   found   him   not; 
I  found  my  Self 
And,   finding,    found    all   three." — Anon. 

THE  spirit  of  the  new  philosophy  that  is 
in  process  of  formulation,  in  response  to 
the  imperative  demand  of  the  new  age,  is,  then, 
the  spirit  of  unity,  finding  expression  in  obedi- 
ence to  its  great  ideal  and  seeking  the  applica- 
tion of  its  principle  to  all  the  relationships  of 
life.  It  must  be  borne  in  mind  constantly, 
however,  that  this  is  not  a  mere  theoretical 
philosophy  imposed  from  without,  so  much  as 
it  is  an  actual  experience  welling  up  from 
within,  thus  justifying  the  lofty  dreams  of  all 
the  prophetic  souls  of  the  past. 

More   than   twenty-five   centuries  ago   the 

94s 


UNITY  WITHIN  ONESELF 

Greek  philosopher,  Pythagoras,  uttered  the 
great  truth  that  "man  is  a  microcosm  of  God." 
In  other  words,  what  the  universe  is  in  the 
large,  man  is  in  the  small.  "Man  is  an  epitome 
of  the  universe;  he  is  a  God  in  embrj^o."  As 
we  attempt  the  interpretation  of  this  experi- 
ence of  unity  and  seek  the  application  of  its 
principle  to  the  various  relations  of  life,  it  is 
most  fitting,  therefore,  that  we  should  begin 
with  the  inner  hfe  of  the  individual;  for  it  is 
clear  that  we  shall  never  find  that  true  unity 
in  outer  relations,  until  first  of  all  we  have 
achieved  it  within  ourselves. 

Some  years  ago  one  of  the  well-known  writ- 
ers of  to-day  contributed  a  series  of  articles 
to  a  leading  publication,  with  the  striking  title, 
"The  Girl  with  the  Hundred  Selves."  With 
a  keen  knowledge  of  personal  psychology,  the 
writer  portrayed  most  graphically  the  differ- 
ent, and  oftentimes,  contradictory  selves  that 
from  time  to  time  assumed  the  ascendency  in 
her  heroine's  life.  But  the  girl  described  in 
these  articles  is  only  typical  of  human  nature 
as  it  is.  We  are,  all  of  us,  men  or  women  of  a 
"hundred  selves,"  and  to  this  more  than  to  any 

95 


SPIRIT  OF  THE  NEW  PHILOSOPHY 

other  oiie  cause  is  due  the  fact  that  our  lives, 
for  the  most  part,  are  so  generally  superficial, 
aimless  and  ineffective.  In  each  one  of  us 
there  is  a  strong  self  and  a  weak  self,  a  brave 
self  and  a  cowardly  self,  a  thoughtful  self  and 
a  careless  self,  an  unselfish  self  and  a  selfish 
self,  an  aspiring  self  and  a  despairing  self,  a 
spiritual  self  and  an  animal  self,  and  the  list 
could  be  extended  indefinitely. 

Now  the  simple  fact  is  that  most  people, 
while  they  may  be  thoroughly  familiar  with  all 
these  various  "selves"  that  at  different  times 
seem  to  be  in  control  of  their  lives,  have  prac- 
tically no  knowledge  of  their  true  self,  which 
is  never  to  be  confused  with  these  lesser 
"selves"  they  know  so  well.  The  first  thing  to 
be  said  of  Personality,  is  that  it  is  self-con- 
scious; and  the  strongest  personalities  are 
always  those  most  truly  and  deeply  self-con- 
scious. But  what  do  we  mean  by  "self -con- 
sciousness"? Certainly  we  do  not  mean  the 
mere  consciousness  of  these  fleeting,  surface 
"selves"  that  are  in  evidence  one  moment  and 
gone  the  next.  /S^ZZ-consciousness  does  not 
mean  "selves"  consciousness  only.     There  is  in 

96 


UNITY  WITHIN  ONESELF 

every  one  of  us  a  deeper  Self,  lying  beneath 
these  "hundred  selves"  we  know  so  well,  and 
the  true  or  complete  Personality  is  the  one  who 
has  become  clearly  and  habitually  conscious  of 
this  deeper  Self. 

Let  us  attempt  to  do  a  little  real  thinking 
about  ourselves.  We  all  know  well  enough 
what  a  "person"  is  until  we  begin  seriously  to 
think  about  the  matter,  and  then  we  discover 
that  it  is  not  so  easy  to  define  a  person  as  we 
thought;  and  when  we  make  the  attempt  we 
are  not  quite  sure  as  to  what  we  mean  by  our 
definition.  Let  us,  then,  perform  a  simple  act 
of  introspection,  for  although  the  process  of 
introspection,  especially  when  it  leads  to  the 
verj^  roots  of  being,  is  not  easy,  still  we  need 
to  remember  that  the  Self  is  nearer  and  more 
penetrable  than  any  other  object  of  knowl- 
edge. 

Let  us  suppose  ourselves  viewing  mentally 
any  immediate  feeling  of  which  we  may 
chance  to  be  conscious.  It  may  be  some  phys- 
ical pain  like  the  tooth-ache,  or  some  taste  of 
sweetness,  or  a  flash  of  light,  or  some  emotion 
like  love  or  fear,  hope  or  despondency.     In 

97 


SPIRIT  OF  THE  NEW  PHILOSOPHY 

every  such  act  of  reflection,  it  is  clearly  evi- 
dent that  the  immediate  feeling,  whatever  it 
may  be,  is  not  only  an  experience,  it  is  also  ex- 
perienc-^fZ;  it  is  not  merely  a  feeling,  but  it  is 
a  feeling  that  is  also  felt.  In  other  words,  it 
is  owned  or  possessed  by  something  or  some 
one.  Now  the  owner  is  not  another  feeling, 
as  some  have  contended,  for  then,  that  other 
feeling  would  in  its  turn  need  an  owner,  or 
some  one  who  feels  it.  Hence,  we  must  con- 
clude that  there  is  the  "I"  that  feels;  and  this 
"I,"  this  "Ego,"  this  "Owner,"  who  is  the  true 
Self,  can  be  distinguished,  though  not  sepa- 
rated, from  its  various  states  and  processes. 

Let  us  put  this  distinction  in  another  way. 
The  first  essential  in  every  form  of  mental 
activity  is  that  there  shall  be  the  individual 
consciousness  of  the  "I,"  who  is  always  the 
Thinker  of  the  thought,  the  Feeler  of  the  feel- 
ing, the  Doer  of  the  act.  We  cannot  perform 
any  mental  operation  without  the  consciousness 
of  this  "I."  All  forms  of  thinking,  feeling  or 
wilhng  depend  upon  the  "I."  You  cannot  es- 
cape, if  you  try,  the  "I  am."  It  is  always,  "I 
think,"  or  "I  feel,"  or  "I  wiU."     There'is  al- 

98 


UNITY  WITHIN  ONESELF 

ways  the  "I"  behind  every  mental  state,  to 
which  everything  is  referred,  which  partici- 
pates in  every  thought  and  feehng,  and  from 
which  proceeds  every  effort  of  the  will. 

But  as  soon  as  we  begin  to  ask  what  this 
*'I"  is,  that  is  alwaj^s  present  in  every  form  of 
mental  activity  and  from  which  we  can  never 
escape,  we  seem  to  find  ourselves  baffled.  All 
attempts  to  explain  or  define  the  nature  of  this 
"I"  seemingly  fail.  It  is  a  Something  that 
cannot  be  explained  by  mental  processes  and 
is  known  only  by  its  presence  in  consciousness. 
Think  as  we  will,  we  are  inevitably  brought 
back  to  our  starting  point, — "I  am."  The 
"I"  is,  hke  God;  perhaps  we  shall  come  to  see 
that  it  is  God  individualized  in  us.  We  are 
only  sure  now,  that  the  "I"  which  is,  is  the 
Knower,  the  Thinker,  the  Doer,  the  Seer;  it 
is  the  deepest  essence  of  every  mental  state. 

The  next  fact  to  be  noted  in  all  forms  of 
mental  activity,  is  the  presence  in  conscious- 
ness of  the  "secondary  I,"  the  alter-ego,  or  the 
"Me,"  as  Professor  James  called  it.  This 
distinction  may  seem  somewhat  subtle,  but  a 
little  consideration  will  make  it  plain.     The  es- 

99 


SPIRIT  OF  THE  NEW  PHILOSOPHY 

sential  difference  is  that  the  "I"  is  the  Some- 
thing that  knows,  feels  and  wills,  while  the 
"Me"  is  that  part  of  the  self  that  is  known  to 
the  "I,"  as  mental  states,  feelings,  thoughts 
and  will-impulses.  A  man's  body  with  its 
physical  sensations  is  a  part  of  his  "Me,"  which 
may  be  examined,  analyzed  and  ruled  by  his 
"I."  His  feelings,  pains,  pleasures,  opinions, 
prejudices,  inclinations,  and  all  the  rest  of  the 
mental  things  that  he  considers  as  a  part  of 
himself,  are  all  portions  of  the  "Me";  for  all  of 
them  may  be  considered,  examined,  changed 
and  ruled  by  the  "I."  The  "Me,"  in  all  its 
parts  and  phases,  is  always  the  "object"  of 
contemplation  by  the  "I";  and  the  "I"  is  al- 
ways the  "subject"  that  contemplates  the 
things  of  the  "Me."  You  can  never  abso- 
lutely separate  the  two. 

We  have  found,  then,  a  final,  ultimate 
Something  within  ourselves  that  defies  our 
powers  of  analysis.  This  "I"  is  what  has  been 
called  the  "pure  ego."  It  is  Something  that 
is  always  present  in  consciousness,  as  that 
which  is  conscious,  while  the  "Me"  is  simply  a 
bundle  of  states  of  consciousness  or  things  of 

100 


UNITY  WITHIN  ONESELF 

which  the  "I"  is  conscious.  The  "I"  is  always 
the  same, — always  the  "I,"  for  other  than  it- 
self it  cannot  be.  The  "Me"  is  constantly 
changing  and  never  the  same.  You  can  never 
think  of  your  "I"  as  not  being.  You  can  never 
say,  "I  am  not,"  nor  can  you  even  imagine 
your  Self  as  not  being.  So  long  as  you  think 
of  your  Self, — the  "I," — at  all,  you  must  ac- 
company the  thought  with  the  consciousness 
of  being.  Nor  can  you  ever  imagine  your 
Self  as  being  any  other  "I"  than  it  is.  You 
can  think  of  it  being  surrounded  with  other 
"Me"  aspects  or  objects,  but  you  can  never 
think  of  your  "I"  as  being  another  "I." 

It  may  be  objected  that  it  makes  no  ma- 
terial difference  to  the  individual  whether  he 
is  able  thus  to  distinguish  between  the  "I"  and 
the  "Me,"  or  not, — that  he  must  live  his  life 
according  to  his  nature  in  either  case.  It  is 
just  here  that  the  whole  crux  of  the  problem 
lies  for  each  individual.  It  is  perfectly  true 
he  may  live  a  kind  of  a  life  without  ever  stop- 
ping to  distinguish  between  his  real  Ego  and 
his  lesser  "selves,"  for  this  is  the  life  that  most 
people  are  living  eveiy  day.     But  he  can  never 

101 


SPIRIT  OF  THE  NEW  PHILOSOPHY 

live  his  truest  life,  that  is,  the  life  that  is  the 
actual  expression  of  his  true,  deep,  inner  Self, 
until  he  reaches  the  point  in  his  development 
where  he  does  make  this  distinction,  clearly 
and  habitually. 

This  is  the  secret  of  the  comparative  failure 
of  most  lives  to  measure  up  to  their  full  pos- 
sibilities in  mental  achievements,  in  moral 
character  or  in  spiritual  development.  How 
few  are  the  men  and  women  who  are  not 
haunted  continually  by  the  feeling  of  how  far 
short  they  come  of  what,  in  their  inmost  be- 
ings, they  know  they  ought  to  be,  and  of  what 
they  know  they  might  accomplish!  How 
many  a  person  realizes  that  his  weakness  and 
shortcomings  are  due  to  the  fact  that  he  seems 
to  be  forever  working  at  cross-purposes  within 
himself,  struggling  with  conflicting  impulses, 
contradictory  desires  or  antagonistic  aims!  If 
life  involves  the  struggle  without,  how  much 
more  does  it  mean  the  constant  struggle  within, 
until  one  cries  out  with  Paul,  again  and  again : 
"The  thing  I  do,  I  would  not,  and  what  I 
would  not,  that  I  do.  Who  shall  deliver  me 
from  the  body  of  this  death?" 

102 


UNITY  WITHIN  ONESELF 

Surely,  this  all  too-common  experience  in 
most  lives  need  not  continue  year  after  year, 
as  the  constant  source  of  sorrow  and  regrets 
and  the  cause  of  barriers  in  the  way  of  one's 
true  growth.  There  ought  to  be  some  way  by 
means  of  which  it  can  be  transcended  and 
passed  beyond  and  left  behind.  What,  then, 
is  the  trouble?  In  a  word,  it  is  because  most 
men  and  women  have  never  yet  achieved  that 
unity  within  themselves  without  which  no  life 
can  ever  be  truly  effective.  And  this  lack  of 
inner  unity  grows  out  of  one's  ignorance  of 
his  true  Self,  the  real  Ego,  who  stands  back 
of  all  moods  and  impulses  and  conflicting  de- 
sires. 

There  is  no  gainsaying  the  fact  that  the  only 
"self"  with  which  most  of  us  are  acquainted  is 
the  "hundred  selves"  of  our  passing,  fleeting 
moods,  that  are  never  the  same  from  moment 
to  moment,  that  possess  no  stability,  no  per- 
manency and,  therefore,  no  reality  We  have 
scarcely  ever  even  glimpsed  the  true  Self,  ex- 
cept in  some  occasional,  crucial  moment  of 
life,  and  such  glimpses  have  been  so  rare  and 
imperfect  that  we  would  hardly  recognize  it 

103 


SPIRIT  OF  THE  NEW  PHILOSOPHY 

again.  The  result  is,  that  we  actually  live  our 
daily  lives,  in  all  our  thinking,  feeling  and 
actions,  from  these  impermanent,  surface 
"selves,"  instead  of  from  the  deep,  imperisha- 
ble, unchanging  Self  within. 

Lacking  this  unity,  the  individual  fails  to 
stand  before  others  as  the  true,  consistent, 
steadfast,  unified  Self  he  might  be,  but  appears 
to  be  a  different  self  at  different  times,  depend- 
ing on  moods,  impulses,  times  and  seasons. 
He  never  impresses  his  fellows  as  a  strong, 
clean-cut  personality;  and  his  life,  of  necessity, 
lacks  influence  and  power.  And  all  because 
the  only  "self"  he  knows  is  the  myriad  "selves" 
of  the  "Me,"  the  constantly  changing  states  of 
consciousness;  his  true  Ego  he  has  never  yet 
discovered. 

The  realization  of  this  true  Ego  in  one's  life, 
at  once  causes  the  individual  to  know  that  lie 
is  not  merely  what  he  thinks  or  feels  or  wills 
at  the  moment,  but  is  rather  the  Something 
that  thinks  and  feels  and  wills  and,  therefore, 
he  may  govern  and  control  these  mental  ac- 
tivities, instead  of  being  mastered  or  controlled 
by  them.     According  to  the  popular  concep- 

104 


UNITY  WITHIN  ONESELF 

tion,  a  man  is  the  creature  and  slave  of  his 
mental  states ;  but  we  have  learned  to-day  that 
man  may  assume  his  rightful  place  on  the 
mental  throne,  and  make  his  own  choice  as  to 
what  feelings  he  may  wish  to  feel,  what 
thoughts  he  may  wish  to  think  and  what  things 
he  may  wish  to  do. 

The  true  Personality  has  attained  to  inner 
unity,  through  the  realization  of  the  "I,"  to 
such  a  degree  that  he  has  become  the  Master, 
not  the  slave.  He  knows  that  the  sovereign 
will  of  the  individual  resides  in  the  Ego,  and 
that  all  his  mental  states  must  obey  its  man- 
dates. Gradually  he  comes  to  know  that  the 
"I,"  his  real  Self,  has  at  its  command  a  won- 
derful array  of  mental  powers  which,  if  prop- 
erly used,  may  create  for  him  any  kind  of  a 
personality  he  desires.  He  reaches  the  sublime 
consciousness  at  length  that  his  Ego  is  indeed 
the  Master  Workman,  who  can  make  of  his 
life  whatsoever  he  wills.  But  before  one  can 
reach  this  consciousness,  he  must  enter  into  a 
deeper  recognition  of  this  wonderful  Ego  that 
he  actually  is.  Remember,  you  are  more  than 
body,  senses  or  mind.     You  are  that  mysteri- 

105 


SPIRIT  OF  THE  NEW  PHILOSOPHY 

ous  Something,  the  Master  of  all  your  inner 
powers  and  forces  of  every  kind,  of  which  the 
profoundest  thing  you  can  say  is,  ''/  am." 

This  consciousness  is  the  only  sure  basis  of 
that  self-confidence  and  self-reliance  which 
alone  make  a  personality  strong  and  powerful 
and  influential  in  the  world.  And  it  invar- 
iably leads  to  these  desired  results  simply  be- 
cause it  alone  brings  about  that  unification  of 
man's  inner  life  for  which  he  is  always  striving, 
and  without  which  his  life  remains  a  super- 
ficial, divided,  distracted  and  ineffective  life. 
Sometimes  this  consciousness  flashes  into  be- 
ing as  the  result  of  some  great,  crucial  experi- 
ence; more  often  it  is  a  gradual  development. 
But,  however  it  may  come,  it  always  involves 
the  clear  recognition  of  the  distinction  between 
the  "I"  and  the  "Me"  in  consciousness,  the 
realization  that  behind  all  the  changing  "Me" 
states,  there  dweljs  the  true  Ego,  the  real  Self, 
unchanging  and  permanent.  When  this  ex- 
perience has  been  won,  all  things  are  possible 
in  self-development. 

It  needs  to  be  clearly  understood,  however, 
that  the  rising  into  consciousness  of  the  true 

106 


UNITY  WITHIN  ONESELF 

Self,  and  the  perception  of  its  real  nature  and 
function,  does  not  necessitate  the  obHteration 
of  all  the  curious,  individual  selves  that  find 
expression  at  the  surface  of  one's  life;  ob- 
viously, it  does  not  mean  that  all  our  various 
moods  are  reduced  to  one  standard  mood,  and 
that  all  our  impulses  are  invariably  methodical 
or  our  desires  are  always  mathematically  cor- 
rect. For  that  would  be  to  reduce  life  to  one 
drab,  neutral  shade.  It  would  destroy  all 
spontaneity,  which  is  life's  greatest  charm,  and 
take  away  its  brightness  and  its  surprises.  It 
would  tend  to  do  away  with  the  mysterious 
element  in  personality,  without  which  life 
would  lose  its  chief  interest  and  zest. 

What  it  would  mean,  however,  is  that  life 
would  be  lived  consciously  from  its  deep,  true 
center  ratlier  than  from  its  superficial  surface ; 
that  whatever  kind  of  a  self  one  might  appear 
to  be  from  outside,  one  would  always  know 
himself  to  be  the  true  Self,  finding  expression 
for  the  moment  in  the  vagrant  self  at  the  sur- 
face; that  however  varying  the  moods  or  im- 
pulses through  which  he  might  allow  himself 
to  wander,  he  would  always  come  back  to  his 

107 


SPIRIT  OF  THE  NEW  PHILOSOPHY 

true  Self;  in  a  word,  that  he  would  never  lose 
his  true  Self  in  the  "hundred  selves"  at  the 
surface  of  life. 

The  personal  problem  for  every  one  is  how 
to  attain  the  clear  consciousness  of  this  true 
Self,  and  thus  achieve  actual  unity  in  one's 
inner  life.  Let  us  make  a  few  practical  sug- 
gestions as  to  the  method  to  pursue.  In  the 
first  place,  we  must  resolutely  accustom  our- 
selves to  making  this  distinction  between  the 
"I"  and  the  "Me"  in  our  daily  thinking. 
There  are  only  two  ways  in  which  a  theoretical 
fact  can  become  a  fact  of  consciousness:  It 
can  break  into  consciousness,  as  it  were,  sud- 
denly, as  the  result  of  some  startling,  crucial 
experience,  in  whose  coming  we  have  had  noth- 
ing directly  to  do.  But  such  experiences  do 
not  come  to  all  of  us  and,  fortunately,  we  do 
not  have  to  wait  for  their  appearance.  The 
other  way,  is  by  our  earnest,  persistent  think- 
ing the  fact.  By  the  law  of  suggestion,  what 
we  habitually  think  comes  at  length  to  take  its 
actual  place  in  consciousness.  We  may  test 
this  principle  in  everyday  experience,  and  no 

108 


UNITY  WITHIN  ONESELF 

mental  exercise  is  more  helpful  in  bringing  the 
true  Self  into  clearer  consciousness. 

Take  the  body  first,  for  example.  Think 
of  all  the  many  despotic  tyrannies  exercised 
by  our  bodies  over  ourselves  constantly.  How 
can  the  Self  be  freed  from  these  bodily  tyran- 
nies? Remember  your  true  relation  to  your 
body.  The  body  is  not  you,  but  only  your 
instrument  for  self-expression.  You  do  not 
need  to  be  its  daily  victim,  for  you  can  and 
should  be  its  master.  Remember  also,  that 
when  you  walk  away  from  it  and  leave  it  be- 
hind, as  it  were,  it  will  have  to  follow  you,  for 
it  could  have  no  existence  apart  from  you;  and 
in  following  you,  it  will  gradually  grow  more 
obedient  to  your  will,  more  harmonious  to  your 
thoughts,  more  responsive  to  your  desires. 
The  tyranny  of  the  body  over  us  is  so  strong, 
chiefly  because  we  are  always  following  it,  in- 
stead of  commanding  it  to  follow  us.  So, 
quite  deliberately  and  decisively,  again  and 
again  during  the  day,  leave  your  body  a  little 
behind,  let  it  drop  out  of  your  throughts  com- 
pletely.    Forget  for  a  while  all  about  its  im- 

109 


SPIRIT  OF  THE  NEW  PHILOSOPHY 

perious  demands  for  attention,  its  passions  and 
appetites,  its  hungers  and  thirsts,  its  aches  and 
pains,  its  fatigue  and  weariness,  its  funny  httle 
needs  and  vanities.  And  as  you  thus  go  on 
ahead,  paying  no  attention  to  the  body  what- 
ever, it  will  learn  the  truth  and  gradually  catch 
up  to  you  again,  recognizing  in  you  the  true 
and  dominant  master.  We  have  never  yet  be- 
gun to  reaHze  the  extent  to  which  the  true  Self 
can  thus  educate  the  body  to  do  its  will.  It 
may  be  hard  at  first,  because  we  have  let  our 
bodies  rule  us  for  so  long;  but  by  persistent 
practise  we  can  attain  to  a  new  and  joy -giving 
sense  of  freedom  and  become,  in  very  truth, 
the  masters  of  our  bodies,  through  the  recogni- 
tion in  consciousness  of  the  true  nature  of  the 
Self. 

Similarly  with  our  intellectual  life.  How 
many  and  varied  are  the  tyrannies  constantly 
exercised  over  us  by  our  intellects!  No  man 
knows  less  about  real  freedom  than  the  man 
who  lives  his  life  merely  on  the  intellectual 
plane,  for,  as  Bergson  says,  there  is  a  deeper 
than  intellect  in  man.  Therefore,  quite  de- 
cisively and  intentionally,  day  by  day,  leave 

110 


UNITY  WITHIN  ONESELF 

your  intellect  for  a  time  in  abeyance.  Forget 
all  about  its  tyrannous  thoughts  and  demands, 
its  prejudices  and  superstitions,  its  strange  lit- 
tle fears  and  fancies,  its  truths  and  errors, — 
the  long  legacy  of  ages  of  evolution.  Leave 
them  all  behind  and,  slipping  away  from  the 
only  guide  to  truth  that  you,  perhaps,  have 
ever  known  as  yet,  dare  to  go  your  own  way 
into  the  Unseen  alone,  feeling  for  the  pathway 
by  intuition  and  trusting  the  deepest  instincts 
of  your  being.  And  some  day,  your  slower 
and  more  conventional  intellect  will  follow  you 
through  the  shadows  of  half-truths,  and  catch 
up  with  you  in  that  clearer  light  to  which  your 
intuition  has  led  you.  Only  determine  never 
to  be  bound  absolutely  by  any  of  the  con- 
clusions of  your  intellect,  or  be  held  back  in 
your  search  for  truth  by  any  of  the  systems 
it  may  invent.  For  thus  to  bow  down  slav- 
ishly before  your  intellect,  is  to  abdicate  the 
true  kingdom  of  your  Self,  and  to  miss  forever 
the  divine  leadership  of  "the  deeper  than  intel- 
lect in  man." 

Thus  it  is  with  all  external  things, — money, 
clothes,  comforts,  luxuries, — harmless  though 

111 


SPIRIT  OF  THE  NEW  PHILOSOPHY 

they  be  in  themselves;  so  with  all  objects  of 
desire, — ambition,  fame,  applause, — good  and 
satisfying  as  they  may  be;  we  must  be  free  of 
them  all.  We  must  even  learn  to  be  free  of 
persons  whom  we  love,  for  even  love  must  be 
possessed  by  the  Self  as  master,  if  one's  inner 
life  is  to  know  unity. 

The  aim  of  such  mental  practise  is  not  that 
we  may  become  free  from  all  these  things  or 
persons,  and  never  have  anything  to  do  with 
them  again;  that  would  be  asceticism,  one  of 
the  most  dreary  and  useless  tyrannies  that  man 
has  ever  known;  but  rather,  that  we  may  be 
free  of  them,  that  they  may  not  get  in  our  way 
or  impede  our  progress, — as  the  master  work- 
man is  free  of  his  tools, — and  so  really  possess 
them  all  for  use  and  enjoyment. 

This  habit  of  detachment  and  withdrawal 
from  the  things  of  life  is  the  practical  side  of 
the  process  of  deepening  the  true  life  center 
and  bringing  it  more  clearly  into  one's  habitual 
consciousness.  It  is  the  old  paradox  of  Jesus: 
the  losing  of  hfe  that  we  may  find  it;  losing 
the  shallow,  feverish  life  at  the  surface  that 
we  may  find  the  deeper,  richer  life  within;  los- 

112 


UNITY  WITHIN  ONESELF 

ing  the  divided,  superficial  "selves"  at  the  cir- 
cumference that  we  may  find  the  true  Self  at 
the  center  in  union  with  All.  The  discovery 
of  this  richer  life  within  must,  however,  in- 
evitably tend  to  enrich  the  surface  manifesta- 
tions as  they  appear  to  others  without. 

That  which  we  let  go  and  leave  behind  is 
not  lost,  but  found  again  in  a  new  and  more 
satisfying  discovery.  It  is  as  if  a  man  sat  on 
a  spur  of  the  foot-hills,  enjoying  the  scene 
spread  out  before  him.  The  horizon  may  be 
narrow,  but  the  landscape,  dotted  with  stream 
and  meadow  and  woods,  is  lovely  and  intimate 
and  so  captivating  in  its  beauty  that  he  feels 
well  content  to  remain  where  he  is  and  cannot 
imagine  any  scene  more  desirable.  But  after 
a  time  there  comes  the  strange  mystical  de- 
sire,— so  natural  to  human  hearts, — to  climb 
higher.  So  he  rises,  turns  his  back  reluctantly 
on  the  dear  famihar  scene,  and  begins  the  fur- 
ther ascent.  He  lets  all  the  beautiful  scenery 
go  and,  literally,  it  drops  away  from  him  as 
he  climbs;  in  a  few  moments  it  is  lost  to  sight 
and  sound.  But  when  the  new  resting  place 
on  the  heights  is  once  attained,  he  finds  to  his 

113 


SPIRIT  OF  THE  NEW  PHILOSOPHY 

delight  that  all  he  seemed  to  lose  at  first  is 
given  back  to  him,  and  in  grander  perspective, 
mightier  setting  and  more  sublime  beauty. 

If  we  are  to  attain  to  inner  unitv,  the  self 
or  "selves"  to  which  we  must  die  are  the  nar- 
row, delusive  selves  which  are  constantly  com- 
ing into  friction  or  antagonism  with  others,  and 
becoming  so  entangled  with  the  things  of  the 
external  world  that  we  lose  the  true  perspec- 
tive of  life,  seeing  it  only  in  divided  and  sep- 
arate fragments,  never  in  its  wholeness.  All 
that  we  lose  in  awakening  to  the  true  Self  is 
this  delusiveness  and  the  perpetual  slaveiy  to 
outward  circumstances  that  cause  disunity 
among  the  surface  selves.  The  view  from  the 
higher  point  includes  all  the  views  from  the 
lower  points.  The  happiness  of  the  true  Self 
includes,  not  excludes,  all  other  possible  de- 
lights. True  unity  embraces  the  lower  as  well 
as  the  higher  kingdoms.  The  realization  of 
this  true  unity  within  oneself  gives  to  one  for 
the  first  time  the  real  possession  of  his  body, 
the  true  mastery  of  his  intellect  and  the  actual 
knowledge  of  his  essential  being. 

The  first  steps,  then,  in  the  pathway  to  unity, 

114 


UNITY  WITHIN  ONESELF 

in  all  its  various  aspects,  lead  inward  toward 
the  deeper  regions  of  one's  true  Selfhood.  On 
the  outer  side,  this  unity  involves  withdrawal 
from  the  circumference  fretting  and  friction, 
the  indifference  to  surface  circumstances,  the 
disentanglement  from  desires  and  things  as 
such;  and  yet,  it  results  in  the  leaving  behind 
of  nothing  worth  while,  for  all  things  follow 
the  one  who  has  found  himself.  On  the  inner 
side,  the  end  of  the  pathway  is  the  union  of  all 
one's  various  "selves"  in  one's  true  Self,  result- 
ing in  inward  harmony  and  peace,  the  eft'ective 
realization  of  the  wholeness  of  one's  personal- 
ity, with  the  inevitable  increase  of  power  and 
influence  with  others. 

To  realize  this  unity  within  yourself  is  the 
great  end  for  which  the  universe  has  rolled 
hitherto.  For  this  end,  your  life,  possibly  yet 
many  lives,  are  lived;  for  this,  death,  perhaps 
many  deaths  may  be  necessary.  Towards 
this,  all  your  experiences, — desires,  fears, 
struggles,  failures,  disappointments,  successes, 
joys,  sorrows,  bewilderments,  sufferings,  re- 
grets, hopes, — must  one  day  surely  lead.  To 
thus  find  one's  true  Self  and  so  achieve  unity 

115 


SPIRIT  OF  THE  NEW  PHILOSOPHY 

within,  one  must  be  positive,  not  negative,  ac- 
tive, not  passive,  ojitimist,  not  pessimist.  The 
unified  Self  does  not  seek  a  dehverance  out  of 
life,  but  rather,  a  fuller  deliverance  into  life; 
he  does  not  disentangle  himself  from  objects 
of  desire  in  order  to  escape  them,  but  rather 
that  he  may  use  and  enjoy  them  with  dignity 
and  mastery.  He  seeks  only  to  be  free  from 
the  wheel  of  life  that  he  may  become  the 
charioteer  in  the  car. 

There  is,  therefore,  no  need  for  feverish 
hurry.  All  we  require  is  strong  faith,  that  is, 
patience  combined  with  sure  expectancy  that 
"all  is  provided  for,"  and  that  one  day  we  shall 
surely  find  the  Self  we  seek.  Haste  and  ex- 
haustion belong  to  the  surface  life,  not  to  the 
depths  within.  "The  higher  the  velocity,  the 
deeper  the  weariness ;  but  the  tempo  of  the  true 
life  is  always  leisurely." 

Whether  we  shall  define  this  "I,"  or  Ego,  or 
true  Self,  as  the  "soul,"  or  as  "a  center  of  con- 
scious energy  in  the  World-Soul,"  or  with 
Carlyle,  as  "a  spark  of  the  Divine,"  or  with 
John  Fiske,  as  "an  emanation  from  the  In- 
finite," or  with  Jesus,  as  "the  child  of  God," 

116 


UNITY  WITHIN  ONESELF 

we  shall  consider  in  a  subsequent  chapter.  It 
is  sufficient  now  to  know  that  this  true  Self 
may  be  discovered,  realized  and  manifested  to 
a  degree  undreamed  of  as  yet  by  most  of  us. 


117 


CHAPTER  VI 

man's  unity  with  nature 

"One  undivided   Soul  of  many   a  soul 
Whose   nature  is   its  own   Divine  Control 
Where  all  things  flow  to  all 
As  rivers  to  the  sea." — Shelley. 

FROM  the  time  that  man  first  began  to 
think,  he  has  constantly  been  seeking  to 
relate  himself  more  intelligently  to  the  uni- 
verse in  which  he  lives.  In  part,  this  has  been 
forced  upon  him  because  of  his  dependence 
upon  nature  for  life  and  sustenance;  in  part, 
because  of  his  instinctive  desire  to  explore  all 
mysteries  and  find  out  the  hidden  meaning  of 
things  for  himself. 

Out  of  this  instinctive  striving  has  grown 
all  mythologies,  theologies,  philosophies  and 
sciences,  from  earliest  times  down  to  the  pres- 
ent. His  interpretations  of  the  universe  have 
run  the  gamut  from  the  first  crude  and  childish 

118 


MAN'S  UNITY  WITH  NATURE 

attempts,  based  on  illusion  and  assumption,  to 
the  latest  conclusions  of  modern  science  which 
we  declare  to  be  based  only  upon  facts. 

The  fascinating  story  of  man's  reading  of 
the  universe  reveals  how  implicitly  he  has 
trusted  his  senses,  and  how  many  times  his 
senses  have  deceived  him.  At  the  outset, 
primitive  man  regarded  nature,  on  the  whole, 
as  hostile  to  his  best  interests;  he  saw  it  as 
filled  with  spirits  both  good  and  evil,  though 
the  evil  forces  seemed  to  be  more  numerous 
and  more  powerful  than  the  good;  therefore 
he  lived  in  constant  dread  and  fear  of  his  uni- 
verse. 

To-day  we  know  that  nature  is  friendly,  and 
that  all  her  mighty  forces  are  good  when  once 
we  have  learned  how  to  obey  and  use  them 
aright.  Man  has  believed  that  nature  stood 
over,  as  it  were,  separate  and  apart  from  man ; 
and  that  man  was  a  higher  order  of  creation, 
brought  into  being  by  a  special  fiat  of  the 
Creator,  distinctly  different  from  all  about 
him.  We  know  to-day  that  man  is  but  the  last 
product  in  the  stupendous  process  of  evolution 
which  has  been  at  work  from  the  beginning, 

119 


SPIRIT  OF  THE  NEW  PHILOSOPHY 

and  that  he  carries  in  his  body,  mind  and  char- 
acter the  vestiges  of  that  lower  life  out  of 
which  he  has  come;  that  his  moral  struggles 
grow  out  of  the  animalliood  that  still  remains 
in  him,  and  that  even  many  of  his  "higher 
qualities,"  that  mark  him  off  as  human,  go 
back  for  their  first  faint  beginnings  to  that 
which  hes  beneath  him  in  the  scale  of  ascend- 
ing life. 

Man  once  imagined  that  the  earth  was  as 
flat  as  a  table;  but  science  proved  that  it  was 
as  round  as  an  orange.  He  thought  it  was 
perfectly  motionless;  science  proved  that  it 
spun  around  like  a  top,  and  swung  around  the 
sun  at  the  rate  of  67,000  miles  an  hour.  The 
ancients  believed  that  the  world  was  a  com- 
paratively small,  compact  affair,  a  sort  of 
band-box  universe;  they  thought  the  sun  was 
a  little  body,  several  acres  in  extent,  that 
circled  around  the  big  earth ;  but  science  proved 
that  the  sun  was  a  million  times  larger  than 
the  earth  and  93,000,000  of  miles  distant,  and 
that  it  was  the  earth  that  revolved  around  the 
sun  once  in  every  year.  They  thought  that 
ours  was  the  only  solar  system,  but  science  dis- 

120 


MAN'S  UNITY  WITH  NATURE 

covered  millions  of  other  such  systems,  most  of 
them  vastly  larger  than  our  own. 

These  are  only  cases  typical  of  many  others, 
where  science  has  dispelled  the  illusions  of 
man's  uneducated  and  uncritical  mind  and 
senses;  and  not  merely  corrected,  but  practi- 
cally and  often  diametrically  contradicted  the 
notions  and  inferences  of  his  mind.  Man  has 
discovered,  with  the  passing  of  time,  that  the 
reality  was  often  the  very  reverse  of  what  his 
uninstructed  and  uncritical  mind  and  senses 
seemed  to  tell  him.  And  what  has  been  true 
of  man's  ideas  about  the  universe,  has  been 
equally  true  of  his  ideas  about  life,  about  him- 
self, his  fellows,  his  God,  and  the  relations  that 
bind  all  together.  The  plain  fact  is  that  il- 
lusion is  written  large  over  all  man's  past 
thinking  along  every  line;  and  future  discov- 
eries will  correct  and  qualify  and,  in  many  in- 
stances, reverse  both  his  past  and  present  ideas 
of  what  is  true. 

Before  going  any  further,  let  us  seek  the 
reason  why  man's  senses  and  superficial  im- 
pressions,— his  eyes,  ears  and  feelings  in  gen- 
eral,— deceive  him,  as  they  certainly  do,  and 

121 


SPIRIT  OF  THE  NEW  PHILOSOPHY 

render  such  deceptive  and  inadequate  reports 
of  the  real  nature  of  things  around  him  as  well 
as  within  him.  One  good  reason  is  this :  Man 
as  a  living  organism  is  placed  in  an  environ- 
ment filled  with  other  organisms  and  things 
which,  like  himself,  are  of  a  highly  compound 
and  re-compounded  character.  JNIan,  phe- 
nomenally considered,  is  not  a  simple,  but  a 
compound  and  complex  being;  and  all  the  be- 
ings and  things  in  the  material  environment 
to  which  he  must  adapt  and  adjust  himself  and 
his  actions, — which  he  must  see,  handle,  strug- 
gle and  interact  with  in  numberless  ways,  are 
hke  himself,  compound  and  complex  beings 
and  things  also.  As  Prof.  R.  K.  Duncan 
says :  "Everything  in  the  universe  is  a  swarm 
of  atoms,  and  every  action  in  the  universe  is  the 
action  of  one  swarm  of  atoms  upon  another." 
Now  man's  senses  and  intelligence  have  been 
developed  in  response  to  the  active  demands  of 
his  environment  that  he,  as  a  living,  striving 
and  strugghng  organism,  must  adapt  himself 
to,  or  else  die  in  the  attempt.  Man  as  a  mas- 
sive and  compound  being  must  learn  to  adapt 
and    adjust    himself    to    other    massive    and 

122 


MAN'S  UNITY  WITH  NATURE 

compound  beings  and  things.  His  eyes,  in 
their  construction,  are  massive  eyes  instead  of 
microscopic,  and  so  are  all  his  other  sense 
organs.  He  is,  therefore,  obliged  to  see  and 
hear  and  feel  things  in  the  mass,  in  the  large; 
and  to  get  collective  impressions  and  synthetic 
perceptions  of  things,  instead  of  cellular, 
molecular,  atomic,  ionic  or  analytic  visions  and 
views  of  things.  In  other  words,  he  is  obliged 
to  see  ever}i:hing,  even  himself,  from  the  out- 
side, roughly  and  in  the  large;  and  so  he  can- 
not, by  these  massive,  instead  of  delicate, 
senses,  perceive  the  inner  truth  of  things  that 
lies  beneath  the  surface.  Thus,  he  is  also 
obliged  to  handle  and  adjust  himself  to  these 
things  in  the  same  rough,  large  and  collective 
ways,  rather  than  in  any  really  fine  or  accurate 
way. 

Man  needs  to  see  his  enemies,  food,  tools, 
weapons,  etc.,  not  as  swarms  of  atoms  and  ions 
as  they  really  are,  but  as  collective  and  com- 
pact bodies  and  wholes;  and  so  it  necessarily 
happens  that  man's  everj^day  knowledge,  de- 
veloped as  it  has  been  for  practical  use  and  ad- 
justment  and   not   primarily   for    theoretical 

123 


SPIRIT  OF  THE  NEW  PHILOSOPHY 

truth,  is  wholly  a  knowledge  of  the  collective 
impressions,  composite  pictures  and  synthetic 
perceptions  of  things.  Such  knowledge  is  not 
and  cannot  be  perfectly  true,  even  as  regards 
the  external,  material  and  objective  character 
and  appearance  of  things ;  while  as  regards  the 
internal,  spiritual  and  subjective  nature  of 
things,  our  senses  are  totally  blind  and  give  us 
no  direct  knowledge  whatever.  Even  our  per- 
ceptual knowledge  is  only  a  half -knowledge,  at 
best.  It  is  very  incorrect,  imperfect  and  il- 
lusionary  in  character,  as  we  are  constantly 
discovering ;  and  when  men  infer,  as  originally 
and  naively  they  must,  that  things  are  actually 
what  they  seem  to  our  practical  but  imcritical 
senses,  they  are  woefully  mistaken. 

Thus  it  is  that  the  world  of  nature,  as  it  has 
been  perceived  by  man's  senses,  is  a  world  of 
appearances  and  is  filled  with  the  greatest  il- 
lusions. Man  clearly  needs,  therefore,  to  sup- 
plement and  correct  his  sensuous  and  per- 
ceptual knowledge  by  that  profounder  knowl- 
edge which  is  to  be  acquired  only  by  scientific, 
philosophic  and  critical  means,  aided  and  in- 
spired also  by  his  own  intuitive  faculty.     Thus, 

1£4! 


MAN'S  UNITY  WITH  NATURE 

as  the  disillusioning  of  man's  mind  gradually 
goes  on,  the  evolution  of  real  knowledge  slowly 
but  surely  proceeds. 

It  may  seem  to  the  reader  as  if  the  forego- 
ing were  only  a  useless  digression;  but  if  it 
serves  to  make  somewhat  clearer  why  it  has 
always  been  man's  tendency  to  see  things  and 
people  in  their  seeming  outer  disunity,  rather 
than  in  their  true  inner  unity,  it  will  have  ful- 
filled its  purpose.  To  enter  into  the  conscious- 
ness of  the  unity  that  exists  in  nature  and  that 
binds  man  to  nature,  man  must  learn  to  use 
other  faculties  than  those  of  his  senses  merely. 

Let  it  first  be  noted  that  the  whole  tendency 
and  effort  of  modern  science  is  a  unifying  one. 
Science  is  rapidly  succeeding  in  demonstrating 
the  unbroken  oneness  and  perfect  internal 
unity  of  the  entire,  all-inclusive  being  of  the 
world,  although  it  is  true  that  the  world  is 
manifested  to  us  in  a  multitude  of  infinitely 
varied  and  seemingly  separate,  individual 
forms.  The  universe  is  a  perfect  organic 
unity  in  an  infinite  variety  of  organic  parts, 
including  man;  it  is  a  unity  in  diversity.  It 
is  not  a  mere  totahty  of  many  separate  beings 

125 


SPIRIT  OF  THE  NEW  PHILOSOPHY 

and  things ;  it  is  not  a  mere  external  union,  nor 
a  mere  organization;  but  it  is,  instead,  an  in- 
tegrality, a  perfect  whole  and  an  indivisible 
organism  of  Being. 

The  discovery  of  the  law  of  gravitation  by 
Sir  Isaac  Newton,  of  the  heliocentric  astron- 
omy by  Copernicus,  of  the  laws  of  cosmic, 
solar  and  biological  evolution  by  Darwin  and 
Spencer,  together  with  many  other  discoveries, 
have  all  gone  to  prove  the  perfect  internal 
unity  of  the  world  and  to  show  that  it  is  in 
reality  a  true  universe  and  not  a  duiverse, 
pluriverse  or  multiverse  of  any  kind.  It  was 
named  "a  universe,"  and  the  name  has  turned 
out  to  fit  the  fact,  as  an  earlier  age  could  not 
imagine.  It  has  never  been  seriously  chal- 
lenged, even  by  the  pluralists.  Thus  Profes- 
sor James  says,  in  "The  Pluralistic  Universe," 
that  his  pluralistic  world  is  a  real  universe, 
partly  if  not  perfectly,  connected  into  a  uni- 
tary whole.  "Our  'multiverse'  still  makes  a 
'universe,'  "  he  says.  The  whole  tendency  of 
science  from  the  beginning  has  been  to  discover 
and  demonstrate  the  perfect  internal  unities, 
continuities  and  interconnections  of  things,  in 

126 


MAN'S  UNITY  WITH  NATURE 

place  of  their  seeming  and  superficial  disuni- 
ties, disconnections  and  discontinuities. 

Within  the  last  few  years  a  profoundly  sig- 
nificant discovery  has  been  made  in  the  fields 
of  chemistry  and  physics.  It  is  that  of  the 
corpuscular,  electrical  and  ethereal  constitu- 
tion of  all  matter  and  energy.  Up  to  quite 
recently  it  had  seemed  that  there  were  about 
80  ultimate  and  basic  elements;  and  that  the 
world,  so  far  as  science  could  prove,  had  been 
made  out  of  these  80  or  more  different  kinds 
of  fundamental  matter.  Philosophical  think- 
ers, as  far  back  as  ancient  India  and  Greece, 
down  through  Spinoza  and  Goethe  to  Spencer 
and  Haeckel,  had  believed,  however,  that  there 
must  be  in  the  last  analysis  but  one  kind  of 
matter  and  but  one  body  of  matter.  This  was 
a  purely  logical  and  metaphysical  idea;  it  had 
never  been  experimently  proved  by  exact 
science.  But  now  many  of  the  leading  scien- 
tists believe  that  it  has  been  so  proven,  and  that 
there  are  not  80  odd  different  kinds  of  ulti- 
mate matter  in  the  world,  but  one,  and  only  one. 
As  Professor  Duncan  again  says:  "The  need 
felt  by  men  of  science,  of  reducing  the  physical 

127 


SPIRIT  OF  THE  NEW  PHILOSOPHY 

universe  to  a  condition  of  oneness,  of  finding 
some  one  thing  out  of  whose  properties  or 
qualities  might  proceed  all  that  is,"  has  seem- 
ingly been  realized  at  last. 

To  quote  a  recent  writer:  "What  happens 
to  the  universe  during  the  stupendous  process 
of  cosmic  evolution  is  not  a  loss  of  its  original 
ethereal  oneness,  but  the  gain  of  a  higher, 
nobler  and  more  organic  oneness.  It  ex- 
changes and  transforms  its  simple,  featureless 
and  monotonous  unity  for  a  complex,  feature- 
ful  and  infinitely  rich  and  varied  unity.  It 
transforms  its  sleepy,  subconscious  and  dreamy 
state  of  being  for  its  wide-awake,  self-conscious 
and  self-critical  state,  in  which  its  spiritual 
potentialities  are  expressed  and  manifested  in 
a  multitude  of  highly  individualized  and  per- 
sonalized forms,  hke  the  human  beings  of  this 
earth.  As  the  roses  are  to  the  rose-bush,  as 
the  eyes,  ears  and  brain  are  to  the  organism, 
so  the  human  intelhgences  on  this  earth,  and 
the  other  similar  intelligences  on  other  planets, 
are  to  the  whole  cosmic  organism  of  the  world. 
They  are  its  eyes  with  which  it  sees  itself,  and 
they  are  its  minds  with  which  it  knows  itself, — 

128 


MAN'S  UNITY  WITH  NATURE 

and  knows  itself  to  be  divine,  or  else  nothing, 
no  matter  how  great  or  tragic  it  may  be  to  be 
divine." 

It  is  to  some  such  sublime  conception  of  the 
unity  that  pervades  all  nature,  including  man, 
that  science  is  bringing  us  to-day.  And  when 
we  turn  to  modern  philosophy,  we  find  that  it, 
too,  is  moving  in  the  same  direction.  Building 
on  these  recent  discoveries  of  science  it  helps 
us  to  see  that  the  human  mind  is  a  function 
not  merely  of  the  human  organism;  it  is,  with 
equal  and  even  greater  truth,  a  function  of 
the  whole  cosmic  organism.  As  man's  brain 
and  mind  have  been  developed  out  of  his  bodily 
and  mental  organism  as  a  whole,  and  in  es- 
sential correspondence  with  it,  so  in  the  same 
way,  man  as  a  whole  and  his  mind  have  been 
developed  out  of  the  body  and  mind  of  nature, 
and  in  essential  correspondence  with  it. 

In  man,  the  universe  as  a  vast  cosmic  organ- 
ism becomes  self-conscious  and  aware  of  itself. 
Our  human  consciousness  is  nature's  cosmic 
consciousness,  individualized  in  us.  Our  hu- 
man intelligence  is  nature's  cosmic  intelligence, 
expressing  and  manifesting  itself  through  us 

129 


SPIRIT  OF  THE  NEW  PHILOSOPHY 

as  through  its  brains  and  minds.  Our  minds 
are  not  our  minds  only ;  they  are  in  a  real  and 
deeper  sense  the  minds  of  the  Cosmos,  and  as 
such,  they  must  be  in  essential  unity  with  it. 
As  Professor  Hoffding  says:  "In  the  prin- 
ciple of  unity  we  have  a  thought  which  is  con- 
clusive for  us.  .  .  .  Philosophy  accepts  the 
unity  as  a  necessary  presupposition  of  the  in- 
terconnection of  the  manifold.  .  .  .  The  prin- 
ciple of  unity  is  a  necessary  presupposition,  if 
we  are  to  understand  Being." 

It  may  rightly  be  urged,  however,  that  this 
conception  of  man's  unity  with  all-that-is,  as 
set  forth  by  modern  science  and  philosophy,  is 
purely  an  intellectual  conception,  and  does  not 
necessarily  lead  to  a  genuine  consciousness  of 
one's  inner  unity  with  nature,  which  is  the  end 
really  sought.  This  is  perfectly  true.  The 
scientist  who  devotes  his  entire  life  to  discover- 
ing the  facts  that  make  for  the  conception  of 
unity,  may  never  have  entered  into  the  con- 
sciousness itself;  while  on  the  other  hand,  many 
an  unscholarly  man  or  woman,  in  perfect 
ignorance  of  the  scientific  facts,  may  be  liv- 
ing  daily   in   the   deep   consciousness   of  the 

130 


MAN'S  UNITY  WITH  NATURE 

unity  existing  between  themselves  and  nature. 

Nevertheless,  we  must  remember  that  it  is 
by  persistently  thinking  a  fact  that  we  event- 
ually take  it  out  of  the  realm  of  mere  intel- 
lectual theory  and  make  it  a  fact  of  conscious- 
ness. This  is  why  we  have  devoted  the  space 
to  setting  forth  the  conception  of  our  unity 
with  nature  that  is  held  by  thoughtful  minds, 
in  order  that  we  may  begin  to  think  correctly 
of  the  closeness  of  the  relation  existing  between 
nature  and  ourselves;  and  in  time,  we  shall 
come  to  experience  the  unity  that  now,  per- 
haps, we  simply  hold  in  our  minds  as  a  the- 
oretical truth. 

The  great  poets  of  all  ages  are  our  real 
guides  into  this  experience,  even  more  truly 
than  the  scientists  and  philosophers,  as  they 
seek  to  express  through  their  art  the  things 
they  have  seen  and  heard  and  felt  in  the  world 
of  nature.  Through  intuition,  rather  than 
through  any  reasoning  process,  they  have 
pierced  to  the  real  secrets  of  nature  and  felt 
their  oneness  with  the  All.  How  many  souls 
there  are  that  have  responded  instinctively  to 
the  truth  in  Shelley's  beautiful  lines: 

131 


SPIRIT  OF  THE  NEW  PHILOSOPHY 

"The  One  remains,  the  many  change  and  pass; 
Heaven's  light  forever  shines,  Earth's  shadows  fly." 

Or  who,  that  has  learned  to  love  Words- 
worth, has  not  quoted  many  times  softly  to 
himself,  when  alone  with  nature,  the  well- 
known  lines : 

"And  I  have  felt 
A    Presence   that   disturbs  me  with   a  joy 
Of  elevated  thoughts,  a  sense  sublime 
Of  something  far  more  subtly  interfused, 
Whose   dwelling   is   the   light   of   setting  suns 
And  the  round  ocean,  and  the  living  air. 
And  the  blue  sky,  and,  in  the  mind  of  man, 
A  motion  and  a  spirit  that  impels 
All  thinking  things,  all  objects  of  all  thoughts 
And   rolls   through   all   things." 

The  friends  of  Walt  Whitman  tell  us  that 
one  of  his  favorite  pastimes  was  to  stroll 
leisurely  out  of  doors,  through  the  fields  or 
under  the  trees  or  along  the  beach,  looking  in- 
tently at  the  grass  or  flowers,  or  at  the  rustling 
leaves  overhead,  or  at  the  waves  as  they  rolled 
in  and  broke  at  his  feet.  They  say  that  he  al- 
ways seemed  to  see  and  hear  far  more  in  na- 
ture than  the  rest  of  us.  He  used  to  say 
himself  that  he  "loved  to  hear  the  grass  grow." 

132 


MAN'S  UNITY  WITH  NATURE 

Thoreau,  who  lived  alone  in  his  little  hut 
on  the  shores  of  Walden  Pond,  through  his 
patient  observance  and  his  deep  sympathy  with 
nature  in  all  her  varying  moods,  became  so 
familiar  with  times  and  seasons  that  he  was 
able  to  tell  almost  to  a  day  when  the  leaves  of 
the  different  trees  would  begin  to  turn  in  the 
autumntide.  So  the  lifelong  study  of  John 
Burroughs,  both  as  a  scientist  and  as  a  lover  of 
nature,  has  enriched  the  world  immeasurably 
by  a  wealth  of  insights  into  nature's  deeper 
meaning. 

Few  have  walked  through  nature  with 
clearer  eyes  or  greater  powers  of  accurate  ob- 
servation than  did  John  Ruskin.  And  he  has 
enabled  us  to  see  in  the  cloud  formations  over- 
head, in  the  mountain  stream  and  in  tree  and 
flower,  beauties  and  meanings  that  our  duller 
powers  of  perception  have  never  even 
glimpsed. 

Ralph  Waldo  Emerson,  in  his  httle  but 
weighty  volume  entitled  "Nature,"  has  re- 
vealed with  true  poetic  insight  the  deeper  laws 
of  nature's  unity  to  all  who  have  eyes  to  see 
and  hearts  to  understand.     And  Richard  Jef- 

133 


SPIRIT  OF  THE  NEW  PHILOSOPHY 

fries,  true  rhapsodist  that  he  was,  in  his  unique 
volume,  "The  Story  of  My  Heart,"  makes  us 
feel  something  of  the  deep  and  wondrous  mean- 
ing that  nature  possessed  for  him.  As  we  see 
him  lying  prone  upon  the  grass,  trying  in  vain 
to  give  expression  to  the  greatness  of  the  pas- 
sion he  feels  for  his  mother  earth,  we  cannot 
fail  to  envy  his  capacity  for  entering  into  such 
complete  and  perfect  unity  with  the  world  of 
nature,  of  which  he  knows  himself  to  be  such  a 
vital  part. 

But  apart  from  the  aid  that  we  may  derive 
from  these  who,  through  love  and  insight,  have 
penetrated  so  deeply  into  nature's  heart  and 
found  themselves  one  with  her,  there  is  one's 
own  personal  experience  with  nature.  There 
is  scarcely  any  one  who  does  not  stand  in  awe 
and  reverence  before  the  calm  majesty  of  a 
sunrise  or  the  exquisite  beauty  of  the  sunset, 
the  mystery  of  the  starry  night  or  the  never 
ending  fascination  of  the  restless  sea,  the 
sublimity  of  the  mountains  or  the  delicate 
grace  of  the  violet.  It  is  not  only  the  aesthetic 
sense  in  man  that  is  thus  appealed  to;  it  is 
something  more  than  just  the  sense  of  beauty 

134. 


MAN'S  UNITY  WITH  NATURE 

that  is  so  deeply  stirred  by  these  wonders  in 
nature.  The  depths  that  are  stirred  by  such 
sights,  in  even  the  least  educated  soul,  is  the 
clear  proof  of  a  something  within,  recognizing 
and  responding  to  a  kindred  something  with- 
out. If  it  is  true  that  Truth  is  Beauty  and 
Beauty  is  Truth,  then  the  sense  of  beauty  that 
so  uplifts  the  soul  in  man  is  also  the  sense  of 
truth, — that  deeper  truth  of  his  fellowship  and 
unity  with  nature  that  he  always  experiences 
at  such  times,  even  though  he  may  not  be  able 
to  put  into  speech  all  he  feels  and  knows. 

Among  contemporary  writers,  there  is  no 
one  who  expresses  so  subtly  and  yet  so  power- 
fully this  sense  of  unity  with  nature  as  Al- 
gernon Blackwood.  It  is  evident  that  he  has 
accepted  Fechner's  theory  of  the  "earth  spirit," 
and  testing  it  out  in  his  own  remarkable  ex- 
perience has  made  it  the  basis  of  many  of  his 
most  striking  stories.  To  many  people  these 
stories  are  quite  meaningless,  but  to  a  large 
number  of  thoughtful  readers  they  make  a 
tremendously  strong  appeal.  With  all  due  al- 
lowance for  the  story-teller's  instinct,  they  are 
profoundly  suggestive  of  the  inner  psychic  and 

135 


SPIRIT  OF  THE  NEW  PHILOSOPHY 

spiritual  forces  that,  for  all  we  know  to-day, 
may  be  operating  in  the  various  forms  of  na- 
ture, and  exerting  upon  us  humans  far  more 
influence  than  we  have  as  yet  realized. 

His  stories  of  the  spirit  in  the  trees,  the 
wind,  the  fire,  the  water,  the  sand;  his  weird 
interpretations  of  many  ancient  rites  that  pos- 
sess little  or  no  significance  for  modern  minds; 
his  suggestions  of  the  psychic  powers  of  cer- 
tain animals,  like  the  dog  and  cat;  and,  above 
all,  the  sense  of  reality  with  which  the  stories 
are  infused — all  tend  to  create  the  impression 
in  the  reader's  mind  that  the  author  is  writing 
out  of  experiences  that  have  made  him  feel  and 
know  a  vastly  closer  connection  between  nature 
and  man  than  most  of  us  know  anything  about. 
He  also  makes  one  feel  that,  by  close  and 
patient  observation,  through  quiet  brooding 
and  sympathetic  communion,  and  especially, 
through  loving  insight,  any  one  may  discover 
for  himself  that  closer  fellowship  with  nature, 
that  sense  of  unity  with  all-that-is. 

It  is  significant  that  those  who  have  been 
born  and  bred  close  to  nature's  heart,  or  those 
who  have  spent  much  time  in  the  solitudes  of 

136 


MAN'S  UNITY  WITH  NATURE 

nature,  seem  often  to  possess  an  almost  mysti- 
cal sense  of  the  close  ties  and  intimate  relations 
binding  them  to  nature,  such  as  is  rarely  found 
among  city  dwellers.  It  would  seem  as  though 
our  conventional  rows  of  houses  and  lofty  sky- 
scrapers and  paved  thoroughfares  and  clang- 
ing cars  shut  civihzed  man  away  from  that 
closer  sympathy  with  nature  w^hich  was  so  char- 
acteristic of  earlier  man. 

But  perhaps  some  reader  will  say:  Why 
should  we  seek  this  sense  of  unity  with  nature  ? 
What  is  the  practical  value  of  this  conscious- 
ness of  our  oneness  with  the  world  of  things 
about  us?  Why  not  be  content  with  seeking: 
what  unity  we  may  among  our  fellows?  Why 
not  get  all  the  enjoyment  we  can  out  of  the 
nature  we  perceive  through  our  senses,  without 
seeking  to  penetrate  to  any  deeper  inner  mean- 
ings? 

Our  answer  to  these  questions  is  first :  That 
all  the  great  souls  who  stand  forth  as  having 
entered  profoundly  into  the  consciousness  of 
the  meaning  of  the  principle  of  unity  and  who 
have  realized  the  ideal  most  fully  in  their  own 
lives,  have  given  expression  to  their  sense  of 

137 


SPIRIT  OF  THE  NEW  PHILOSOPHY 

oneness  with  the  world  of  nature.  To  them 
it  has  been  the  evident  source  of  fresh  courage 
and  new  inspiration  for  hfe's  tasks.  It  has 
poured  streams  of  healing  into  their  souls, 
when  weary  or  discouraged.  It  has  furnished 
vital  illumination  for  their  problems.  But, 
deeper  still,  it  has  seemed  to  be  the  inseparable 
accompaniment  of  the  experience  of  oneness 
with  their  fellows  and  with  God.  It  is  safe 
to  say  that  no  one  has  ever  become  profoundly 
conscious  of  his  unity  with  God,  without  ex- 
periencing his  oneness  with  the  world  that  he 
knows  to  be  God's  world. 

But  beyond  this,  the  one  who  has  attained 
to  unity  within  himself,  instinctively  reaches 
out  after  a  similar  unity  with  that  which  is 
without.  One  of  the  sure  evidences  that  he 
has  found  unity  within  is  that  he  is  seeking  it 
without.  For  the  true  Self  that  he  has  discov- 
ered, and  upon  the  finding  of  which  depends 
his  inner  unity,  is  always  one  with  the  World- 
Self,  that  thrills  and  throbs  and  pulsates  in  all 
of  nature's  manifestations.  Therefore,  the 
true  Self  must  press  on  to  experience  its  unity 
with  the  world  in  which  it  dwells. 

138 


MAN'S  UNITY  WITH  NATURE 

Finally,  the  experience  of  one's  unity  with 
nature  makes  possible  the  sense  of  "being  at 
home  in  the  universe,"  which,  as  no  words  can 
fully  describe,  gives  to  the  inner  life  the  feel- 
ing of  calm  confidence,  of  quiet  peace,  of  rest- 
ful power.  Such  an  one  knows  himself  to  be 
in  his  own  place.  Time  and  space  make  little 
difference,  for  he  knows  that  all  things  belong 
to  him  by  right  and  that,  sooner  or  later,  his 
own  will  surely  come  to  him.  All  fear  and 
distrust,  all  hesitancy  or  timidity  vanish  into 
the  background  forever,  and  he  faces  all  out- 
ward conditions  with  perfect  trust  and  habit- 
ual courage.  He  has  learned  that  the  entire 
universe  is  his  own  vast  domain,  even  as  he 
belongs  to  nature  as  one  of  her  vital  and  in- 
dispensable parts. 

To  thus  find  one's  true  Self,  and  to  know 
that  Self  as  being  at  home  in  a  universe  that  is 
eternal,  is  to  conquer  time  and  sense,  and  to 
transcend  even  death  itself. 


139 


CHAPTER  VII 

man's  unity  with  his  fellows 

"The  heart  and  soul  of  all  men  being  one,  this  bitterness  of 
his  and  mine  ceases.  He  is  mine,  I  am  my  brother,  and  my 
brother  is  me." — Emerson. 

IF  the  new  psychology  is  helping  man  to  ex- 
plore the  hidden  depths  of  his  own  being, 
and  achieve  inner  unity  by  the  discovery  of  the 
true  Self  that  stands  back  of  all  his  kaleido- 
scopic selves,  the  new  social  movement  is  just 
as  surely  turning  his  attention  outward  toward 
his  fellows  everywhere,  and  forcing  him  to 
study  seriously  the  relations  he  sustains  to 
them.  Just  as  earnestly  as  he  is  seeking  real- 
ity within,  is  he  seeking  reality  in  these  social 
relations  without.  As  all  men  are  striving, 
more  or  less  clearly,  to  attain  a  unity  within 
themselves,  even  so  they  are  endeavoring  to 
find  a  unity  with  their  fellows  that  does  not 
now  exist. 

The    social    movement    in    all    its    various 
phases,  which,  on  the  surface,  is  seeking  to 

140 


MAN'S  UNITY  WITH  HIS  FELLOWS 

bring  a  larger  measure  of  justice  into  all  our 
social  life,  is  nevertheless,  at  bottom,  a  striving 
to  find  and  establish  a  deeper  unity  in  the  life 
of  mankind.  Any  new  social  order  that  may 
come  to  have  its  place  in  the  world,  if  it  is  to 
register  genuine  progress,  must  be  based  upon, 
and  must  steadily  seek  to  foster  and  develop, 
a  larger  measure  of  social  unity.  We  shall 
consider  later  the  application  of  the  principle 
of  unity  to  the  larger  life  of  society  as  a  whole; 
for  the  present,  let  us  think  of  it  as  it  binds 
individual  men  and  women  to  other  individuals 
throughout  the  world. 

At  first  glance,  the  thing  that  impresses  us 
is  the  many  differences  that  exist  between  in- 
dividuals in  the  race,  in  the  nation,  in  the  com- 
munity and  even  in  the  same  household.  Men 
are  divided  politically,  by  wide  divergencies  of 
conviction  and  by  party  affiliation,  and  the 
tendency  is  for  each  to  see  little  good  in  the 
other's  views.  In  religion,  men  are  separated 
by  different  faiths,  diverse  creeds,  and  many 
rival  sects. 

"So  mnny  gods,  so  many  creeds, 
So  many  paths  that  wind  and  wind.  .  .  ." 

141 


SPIRIT  OF  THE  NEW  PHILOSOPHY 

Socially,  men  are  widely  divided  by  class  con- 
sciousness, never  so  intense  as  to-day, — by 
wealth,  clothes,  manners  and  all  that  goes  to 
make  up  one's  social  standing  in  the  commun- 
ity. Intellectually,  men  are  at  all  stages  of 
development  and  are  possessed  of  all  degrees 
of  education  and  training,  from  the  "ignorant 
foreigner"  to  the  cultivated  and  polished  uni- 
versity scholar.  Differences  in  moral  ideals 
and  attainments  separate  people  into  all 
phases  of  the  so-called  good  and  bad.  In  ad- 
dition, there  are  all  the  innumerable  differences 
in  individual  tastes,  peculiarities,  dispositions, 
temperaments,  that  tend  to  divide  men  and 
women  from  one  another. 

Out  of  all  these  differences  that  exist  be- 
tween people  grow  the  mutual  animosities  and 
antagonisms,  the  prejudices  and  dislikes,  the 
envies  and  jealousies,  the  bitternesses  and 
hatreds  that  inevitably  destroy  even  the  sem- 
blance of  unity  that  might  seem  to  exist. 
Nearness  in  space  does  not  seem  to  overcome 
these  differences,  for  oftentimes  those  living 
under  the  same  roof  are  most  widely  separated 
from  each  other.     The  relation  of  husband  and 

142 


MAN'S  UNITY  WITH  HIS  FELLOWS 

wife  that,  in  its  ideal  sense,  symbolizes  the 
highest  type  of  unity,  often  only  serves  to  fur- 
ther accentuate  the  differences  that  divide ;  for 
there  are  no  separations  so  deep  or  wide  as  the 
separations  in  spirit. 

One  of  the  most  solemnly  mysterious  facts 
of  hfe  is  that  every  individual  in  this  world 
stands  alone;  he  lives  his  life  alone  and  at  last 
he  must  die  alone.  Just  as  no  two  atoms  ever 
really  touch  each  other,  even  in  the  most  com- 
pact of  substances,  so  no  two  individuals  ever 
completely  touch  each  other,  no  matter  how 
closely  they  may  be  thrown  together.  Even 
in  the  most  nearly  perfect  union  of  man  and 
woman,  there  are  always  some  reserves,  some 
barriers,  something  withheld.  How  many 
times  have  devoted  parents  suffered  over  the 
reserves  that  seemed  to  come  between  them  and 
their  children ;  how  many  a  friendship  has  been 
shadowed  for  the  same  reason!  Let  any  one 
reflect  upon  his  circle  of  friends  and  then  ask 
himself  the  question :  With  how  many  of  these 
friends  do  I  find  myself  in  complete  unity? 
In  every  friendship  there  must  be  some  com- 
mon points  of  contact,  but  there  are  also  great 

143 


SPIRIT  OF  THE  NEW  PHILOSOPHY 

differences;  and  while  it  is  true  that  the  differ- 
ences often  help  to  form  and  preserve  the 
friendship,  their  presence,  nevertheless,  proves 
the  absence  of  real  unity,  at  least  on  the  sur- 
face. No  true  conception  of  unity  between 
people  can  ignore  this  fundamental  character- 
istic of  the  individual, — that  in  his  deepest  life 
he  seems  to  stand  alone ;  this  is  what  constitutes 
his  individuality. 

Upon  more  careful  reflection,  however,  we 
come  to  perceive  that  these  differences,  in  spite 
of  all  the  friction  and  heart-ache,  the  strife 
and  bitterness  which  they  engender,  are,  after 
all,  more  superficial  than  deep,  and  grow  out 
of  accidental  rather  than  essential  features  in 
human  nature.  Underneath  all  these  many 
differences  which  we  allow  to  separate  us  so 
sadly,  there  is  a  unity  that  binds  all  individuals 
into  one  great  Whole,  a  oneness  in  which  ra- 
cial, national  and  individual  differences  exist 
and  always  will  exist,  but  which  may  serve  not 
to  separate  and  divide,  but  to  unite  all  in  the 
larger  service  of  the  good  of  the  Whole.  Is 
this  deeper  unity  grounded  in  fact,  or  is  it,  as 
might  well  appear  to-day,  only  a  beautiful 

144! 


MAN'S  UNITY  WITH  HIS  FELLOWS 

theory?  Let  us  look  more  deeply  beneath  the 
surface  of  our  divided  hfe. 

The  essential  fact  in  human  history  as  we 
read  it  to-day  is  the  slow  awakening  of  the 
sense  of  unity,  the  gradual  unfolding  of  a  feel- 
ing of  community  between  men,  nations  and 
races,  the  dawning  possibility  of  cooperation, 
of  undreamed  of  collective  powers,  of  a  com- 
ing synthesis  of  the  human  species,  of  the 
eventual  development  of  a  conunon  general 
ideal,  a  common  universal  purpose  for  human- 
ity as  a  whole,  out  of  all  the  present  chaotic 
confusion.  The  struggles  and  bloodshed  of 
all  the  past  have  proved  the  duty  and  also  the 
right  of  every  individual  to  be  not  another,  but 
himself.  But  at  last  we  are  beginning  to 
realize  that  one's  individual  existence  is  not  so 
entirely  cut  off  as  it  seemed  at  first,  that  one's 
entire  separate  individuality  is  but  one  of  the 
many  subtle  illusions  of  the  human  mind. 

"Between  you  and  me  as  we  bring  our  minds 
together,  and  between  us  and  the  rest  of  man- 
kind there  is  something,  something  real,  some- 
thing that  rises  through  us  and  is  neither  you 
nor  me,  that  comprehends  us,  that  is  thinking 

145 


SPIRIT  OF  THE  NEW  PHILOSOPHY 

here,  and  is  using  us  to  play  against  each  other 
in  that  thinking."  This  is  no  mere  poetical 
statement;  it  is  literal  truth.  We,  you  and  I 
and  every  one,  are  not  only  parts  in  a  thought 
process,  but  parts  of  one  universal  flow  of  life 
and  blood. 

From  the  biological  view-point,  the  unity  of 
mankind  is  scientifically  true.  The  scholars 
are  agreed  to-day  that  the  human  race,  with 
all  its  various  diff'erentiations,  goes  back  ulti- 
mately to  one  common  source.  The  cradle  of 
the  race  is  now  supposed  to  have  been  in  the 
ancient  land  of  India,  somewhere  in  the  vicin- 
ity of  the  Himalaya  Mountains.  From  that 
source,  through  prehistoric  times,  early  peo- 
ples wandered  to  and  fro,  extending  their 
migrations  ever  farther  and  farther,  and  reach- 
ing even  the  western  world, — as  witness  the 
ancient  ruins  in  Central  America. 

The  differences  that  exist  to-day  between 
the  various  races  of  men, — differences  in 
language,  in  government,  in  religion,  in  dress, 
in  manners  and  customs,  grew  up  gradually 
through  a  long  period  of  time,  and  are  due 
primarily  to  differences  in  environment,  cli- 

146 


MAN'S  UNITY  WITH  HIS  FELLOWS 

mate,  soil,  food,  etc.,  as  these  primitive  peoples 
became  separated  farther  and  farther  from 
each  other.  But,  in  spite  of  all  these  differ- 
ences, developed  through  thousands  and  thou- 
sands of  years,  the  biological  basis  of  humanity 
is  one;  the  same  blood  flows  in  all  our  veins. 

With  the  evidence  that  we  have  of  the  wide 
wanderings  of  prehistoric  tribes,  and  remem- 
bering the  ceaseless  movements  of  peoples  to 
and  fro  on  the  earth's  surface  during  historic 
times,  with  the  inevitable  intermarriage  of  in- 
dividuals from  different  tribes  and  races  con- 
stantly taking  place,  we  realize  how  baseless 
is  the  idea  that  there  is  to-day  any  such  thing 
as  an  essentially  distinct  or  separate  race.  As 
one  of  America's  foremost  anthropologists 
said  in  a  recent  address:  "The  world  has 
nothing  to  fear,  biologically,  from  the  inter- 
marriage of  the  races,  for  the  simple  reason 
that  the  races  have  long  since  become  hope- 
lessly mixed." 

The  longer  one  lets  his  imagination  play 
upon  the  incalculable  drift  and  soak  of  the 
world's  population,  the  more  clearly  one  real- 
izes the  tremendous  fact  of  the  biological  one- 

147 


SPIRIT  OF  THE  NEW  PHILOSOPHY 

ness  of  humanity  as  a  whole,  regardless  of  all 
racial  and  national  names  which  we  still  em- 
ploy to  separate  peoples  from  one  another. 
Thus,  from  this  strictly  scientific  point  of  view, 
our  individualities,  our  states  and  nations  and 
races  are  but  "bubbles  and  clusters  of  foam 
upon  the  great  stream  of  the  blood  of  the  hu- 
man species,  incidental  experiments  in  the 
growing  knowledge  and  consciousness  of  the 
race." 

When  we  study  the  intellectual  achieve- 
ments of  the  various  races  and  nations,  we  are 
profoundly  impressed  with  the  essential  like- 
mindedness  of  all  men.  So  long  as  there  were 
no  easy  means  of  communication  between  dif- 
ferent portions  of  the  globe  and  men  and  na- 
tions lived,  of  necessity,  separated  lives,  each 
group  naturally  worked  out  its  particular 
problems  in  its  own  way.  It  is  thus  that  the 
ideals  of  government,  of  social  and  economic 
systems,  of  sciences  and  philosophies  and  the 
arts,  of  morals  and  religions,  were  originally 
developed ;  each  separate  nation  or  race  slowly 
working  out  its  ideals,  theories  and  general 
systems    of   knowledge    independently,    as    if 

148 


MAN'S  UNITY  WITH  HIS  FELLOWS 

there  were  no  other  races  or  nations  in  the 
world. 

To-day,  with  our  modern  transportation 
facihties,  our  cable  and  radio  service,  the 
tremendous  growth  of  travel  between  different 
countries,  however  widely  separated,  the  in- 
terchange of  literatures  and  the  vast  extension 
of  commerce  and  trade,  we  realize  how  this  old 
barrier  of  simple  ignorance  of  one  another  has 
been  torn  away;  and  we  have  discovered  that, 
all  unconsciously,  these  different  races  and  na- 
tions of  men  have  been  working  out  their 
separate  destinies  along  essentially  the  same 
lines  and  toward  practically  the  same  great 
ends.  Some,  to  be  sm-e,  for  obvious  reasons 
have  been  moving  more  rapidly,  some  have 
made  greater  progress  and  approached  more 
nearly  their  ideals  than  have  others;  but  all 
have  been  moving  along  the  same  general  lines 
of  development. 

All  men,  however  isolated,  have  confronted 
the  same  universe  of  mystery,  have  faced  the 
same  problems  of  human  existence,  have  re- 
flected upon  the  same  experiences  of  the  inner 
consciousness;  and  whatever  the  differences  in 

149 


SPIRIT  OF  THE  NEW  PHILOSOPHY 

the  forms  of  the  conclusions  at  which  they  have 
arrived,  the  content  of  those  conclusions  has 
been  the  same  for  all  men.  The  human  mind, 
the  whole  world  round,  is  one;  its  activities 
everywhere  conform  to  the  same  laws  of  mind ; 
its  powers,  given  the  same  opportunities  and 
an  equal  time  for  development,  are  practically 
the  same  for  all. 

Politically,  the  world  is  moving  rapidly  to- 
day toward  democracy,  and  mankind  is  pretty 
well  convinced  that  some  form  of  self-govern- 
ment is  the  ideal  government  to  be  attained  by 
all  nations,  just  as  soon  as  the  people  are  capa- 
ble of  self-government. 

If  Science  be  "the  systematized  body  of 
ascertained  knowledge,"  then  there  can  be,  in 
the  nature  of  the  case,  but  one  scientific  system 
for  the  world.  We  cannot  conceive  of  a 
Chinese  science,  or  a  German  science,  or  a 
Russian  science,  or  an  American  science. 
Science,  in  just  so  far  as  it  is  science,  must  be 
one, — a  World  Science. 

While  the  external  forms  of  the  art  of  dif- 
ferent peoples  have  varied  widely,  in  poetry, 
in  music,  in  painting,  in  sculpture, — still  we 

150 


MAN'S  UNITY  WITH  HIS  FELLOWS 

recognize  that  the  fundamental  principles  out 
of  which  true  art  always  springs  are  the  same 
for  the  world. 

In  the  same  way,  though  perhaps  more  grad- 
ually, we  are  beginning  to  see  that  all  the  past 
systems  of  philosophy  have  but  been  preparing 
the  way  for  the  coming  of  a  world  philosophy, 
in  which  the  truths  of  the  many  various  sys- 
tems of  thought  may  be  comprised  in  a  new 
and  universal  synthesis, — even  a  World  Phil- 
osophy. 

The  comparative  study  of  the  world's  great 
literature  reveals  the  same  like-mindedness, — 
the  same  outreachings  toward  truth  and 
beauty,  the  same  heart-hungerings  for  love  and 
goodness.  Even  the  forms  of  these  different 
literatures, — poetry  and  prose,  drama  and  fic- 
tion,— are  essentially  similar. 

The  recent  science  of  Comparative  Relig- 
ions also  reveals  the  same  underlying  unity  in 
morals  and  religion  of  all  peoples,  as  we  shall 
see  more  at  length  in  a  subsequent  chapter. 
It  is  this  recognition  that  in  the  realm  of  the 
intellectual,  moral  and  spiritual  achievements 
of  men  there  is  an  essential  oneness,  a  world- 

151 


SPIRIT  OF  THE  NEW  PHILOSOPHY 

life,  in  which  all  mankind  participates  and  to 
which  all  men  have  contributed  and  must  con- 
tribute, that  not  only  constitutes  the  psycho- 
logical basis  of  unity  between  men,  but  is 
rapidly  drawing  all  nations  into  an  ever  closer 
unity  that  must  lead  eventually  to  an  actual 
fellowship  of  humanity. 

Still  another  phase  of  the  psychological  basis 
for  the  oneness  of  humanity  is  found  in  the 
fact  that  all  men,  regardless  of  race  or  nation, 
seem  to  be  capable  of  indefinite  development, 
and  along  the  same  lines,  both  mental  and 
moral.  John  G.  Paton,  the  Apostle  to  the 
New  Hebrides,  demonstrated  in  a  lifetime  of 
singular  devotion,  the  possibility  of  transform- 
ing the  cannibal  natives  of  the  South  Sea  Is- 
lands into  civilized  beings,  with  not  only  all  the 
capacities  of,  but  the  ambitions  for,  intellectual 
and  moral  development.  Bishop  Hannington 
revealed  the  same  possibilities  among  the  sav- 
ages of  Africa. 

We  watch  the  children  of  the  immigrants  as 
they  stream  from  the  steerage  of  the  vessels 
at  Ellis  Island.  They  come  from  every  land 
under  the  sun;  they  represent  the  most  back- 

153 


MAN'S  UNITY  WITH  HIS  FELLOWS 

ward  as  well  as  the  most  advanced  races ;  their 
language  is  strange,  their  dress  is  peculiar,  the 
color  of  their  skin  is  different.  They  come 
from  countries  where  for  centuries  their  an- 
cestors have  lived  in  ignorance,  perhaps 
ground  down  beneath  the  heel  of  tyranny. 

But  give  these  same  children  five  or  ten 
years  in  our  public  schools,  and  then  note  the 
change.  They  not  only  catch  up  to  and  keep 
pace  with  our  American-born  boys  and  girls, 
but  in  many  instances  they  outstrip  them, 
carrying  off  the  honors  in  college  and  uni- 
versity, and  filling  positions  of  usefulness,  re- 
sponsibility and  leadership  in  all  walks  of  life 
as  they  reach  years  of  maturity.  The  brilliant 
students  from  India,  China,  Japan,  Syria  and 
other  lands,  who  in  recent  years  have  distin- 
guished themselves  at  Harvard,  Yale,  Colum- 
bia, Cornell  and  other  American  and  English 
universities,  prove  the  same  possibilties  for  de- 
velopment among  these  oriental  races. 

Or,  take  the  so-called  incorrigible  bad  boys 
who  seem  to  many  to  stand  outside  the  pale  of 
normal  human  nature,  until  one  day  there 
comes  along  a  Judge  Ben  Lindsey  who,  with 

153 


SPIRIT  OF  THE  NEW  PHILOSOPHY 

sympathetic  insight  and  love,  takes  these  "bad 
boys"  to  his  home,  becomes  their  counselor  and 
friend,  and  proves  the  possibility  of  upright, 
useful  citizenship  in  even  the  "bad  boy." 

The  confirmed  criminal,  apparently  hope- 
less, turns  out  to  be  no  exception  when  a 
Thomas  Mott  Osborne  begins  to  treat  him  as 
a  man,  worthy  of  confidence  and  respect;  or  a 
Madeleine  Doty  does  the  same  for  the  female 
offender. 

From  the  psychological  view-point,  all  men 
are  far  more  alike  than  they  are  different,  if 
only  one  can  see  beneath  the  surface  differences 
of  their  lives.  And  all,  even  the  apparent  ex- 
ceptions, are  susceptible  of  indefinite  develop- 
ment and  along  the  same  general  lines.  It  is 
here  indeed  that  we  find  profound  evidence  for 
the  idea  of  unity,  of  human  oneness,  of  the 
solidarity  of  mankind. 

But  it  may  justly  be  claimed  that  these  facts, 
while  frankly  admitted  by  all  intelHgent  peo- 
ple, leave  one  cold  and  unmoved ;  they  may  im- 
press the  intellect,  but  they  fail  to  grip  the 
heart ;  they  do  not,  in  and  of  themselves,  induce 
in  us  the  consciousness  of  unity  with  our  fel- 

154 


MAN'S  UNITY  AVITH  HIS  FELLOWS 

lows  that  we  really  seek.  It  is  the  old  dis- 
tinction once  again  between  a  theoretical  fact 
and  one  that  has  become  a  fact  of  conscious- 
ness. If  our  sense  of  unity  with  other  in- 
dividuals is  to  become  not  only  an  intellectual 
fact  to  be  discussed,  but  an  experience  to  be 
felt  and  lived  and  loved,  then  something  more 
is  needed.     Where  shall  we  find  it? 

Let  us  recall  our  previous  discussion  of  the 
nature  of  the  true  Self.  If  it  be  true  that  back 
of  the  "hundred  selves"  that  find  expression  at 
the  surface  of  my  life,  changing,  fleeting,  im- 
permanent, there  is  a  deeper  Self  that  consti- 
tutes the  real  "I"  in  me,  unchanging  and  per- 
manent, then  the  same  great  fact  is  equally  true 
of  all  men.  The  disunity  exists  in  my  personal 
life  only  because  I  have  never  yet  discovered 
this  true  Self  within,  to  which  all  the  other 
lesser  "selves"  should  be  subordinated  and 
which  they  all  may  obey. 

In  just  the  same  way,  the  disunity,  or  the 
"differences"  that  I  see  in  my  fellows,  dividing 
them  from  one  another  and  separating  them 
from  me,  arise  from  their  "hundred  selves"  at 
the  surface,  and  not  from  the  real  Selves  that 

155 


SPIRIT  OF  THE  NEW  PHILOSOPHY 

lie  deep  within  them  all.  The  differences  that 
divide  belong  to  human  surfaces,  not  to  hu- 
man centers.  And  the  fact  that  all  these  dif- 
ferences seem  to  be  in  evidence  most  of  the 
time,  causing  all  the  myriad  forms  of  friction 
and  strife  between  men  and  nations,  only  goes 
to  show  that  most  men  are  as  yet  living  their 
lives  from  the  surface  rather  than  from  the 
true  center. 

We  have  seen  that  unity  cannot  mean  same- 
ness or  identity;  it  cannot  ignore  the  unique- 
ness of  each  Self,  We  can  conceive  of  two 
Selves  going  through  exactly  the  same  experi- 
ences, looked  at  from  without,  and  yet  we  know 
that  these  same  experiences  would  never  mean 
just  the  same  to  these  different  Selves.  I  can- 
not only  say,  "I  am  I,  and  no  one  else";  but 
there  is  a  deep  sense  in  wliich  I  can  say,  "I  am 
I  and  like  no  one  else."  Each  Self,  then,  may 
with  truth  be  said  to  be  a  center  of  unique  in- 
terest. 

We  are  like  spectators  in  a  theater.  Each 
of  us  views  the  same  universe;  but  each  gazes 
on  the  wonderful  spectacle  from  his  own  par- 
ticular seat  in  the  theater,  as  it  were ;  and  there- 

156 


MAN'S  UNITY  WITH  HIS  FELLOWS 

fore,  each  sees  it  from  his  own  unique  point 
of  view;  and  consequently,  to  none  of  us  does 
it  appear  exactly  the  same  as  it  does  to  the 
rest.  This  uniqueness  of  the  individual  must 
be  kept  clearly  in  mind.  But  this  is  not  to 
predicate  of  the  Self  any  absolute  or  essential 
difference  in  nature  from  all  other  Selves. 
The  uniqueness  exists,  but  in  a  deeper  lying 
unity  which  by  some  means  we  must  learn  to 
grasp. 

As  we  probe  still  deeper  the  mystery  of  the 
Self,  while  we  admit  that,  on  the  surface,  finite 
selves  do  appear  to  stand  to  each  other  in  this 
relation  of  mutual  exclusiveness,  we  find  that 
the  experience  of  every  Self  is  included  in  a 
larger  experience,  that  each  Self  is  a  part  of 
a  Greater  Self.  This  brings  us  to  the  very 
heart  of  the  truth.  No  other  view  is  possible 
than  that  the  true  Self  in  each  individual  is  a 
form  under  which  Reahty,  or  the  Life-Prin- 
ciple, or  God,  finds  expression ;  then,  each  Self 
is  not  only  unique  in  itself,  but  is  also,  on  this 
very  account,  a  unique  appearance  in  a  finite 
center  of  the  underlying  Reahty  that  "rolls 
through  all  things."     Thus  we  are  forced  to 

157 


SPIRIT  OF  THE  NEW  PHILOSOPHY 

admit  that,  in  their  deepest  essence,  all  beings 
are  One  Being,  and  all  individual  Selves  are 
One  Self;  and  there  are  no  such  things  as 
private,  separate,  exclusive,  individual  beings 
or  selves,  save  in  our  false  and  illusory  think- 
ing. 

The  ignorance  of  this  one  fact,  that  in  our 
true  Selfhood  we  are  one  with  all  others,  and 
that  only  on  the  surface  of  our  lives  are  we  in 
any  sense  divided,  is  no  trivial  or  unimportant 
distinction;  on  the  contrarj^  it  is  of  the  pro- 
foundest  importance,  as  any  one  can  see  by 
reading  the  past  and  present  history  of  the 
race.  It  is  the  fountain-head  of  all  forms  of 
cold-blooded  selfishness, — envy,  anger  and 
hate ;  of  all  pride,  vanity,  conceit  and  contempt 
for  others;  of  all  injustice,  greed,  cruelty  and 
crime;  of  all  behefs  in  the  superiority  of  one- 
self and  the  inferiority  of  others. 

"Man's  inhumanity  to  man  makes  countless  millions  mourn." 

And  the  clear  and  simple  reason  is  because 
men  have  always  imagined  that  they  were 
private,  separate  selves ;  that  they  lived  private, 
separate    lives;    had    private,    separate    exist- 

158 


MAN'S  UNITY  WITH  HIS  FELLOWS 

ences;  and  would  have  private,  separate  fates 
and  destinies. 

This  is  the  great  illusion,  the  monstrous 
superstition  that  has  created  all  the  disunity  in 
the  world  since  time  began,  and  that  will  yet 
make  a  veritable  hell  of  earth,  unless  it  can  be 
banished  forever  by  man  himself.  Men  are 
not  private,  separate  beings;  they  do  not  and 
cannot  live  private  and  separate  lives,  however 
they  may  deceive  themselves ;  and  they  have  no 
private,  separate  fates  or  destinies. 

Both  science  and  philosophy  to-day,  not  to 
mention  religion,  whose  message  of  unity  has 
always  been  lost  to  all  save  the  few,  are  pre- 
pared to  destroy  this  egotistical  illusion,  and 
to  prove  that  men  in  their  true  Selves  are  noth- 
ing more  or  less  than  dynamic  differentiations 
of  Being  in  a  unitary  cosmic  organism,  under 
phenomenally  individualized  and  personalized 
forms.  And,  as  such,  all  our  individual  lives 
are  One  Life,  all  our  interests  of  every  kind 
are  absolutely  mutual,  and  the  purpose  of  all 
our  existences  is  forever  the  same,  to  serve, 
each  in  his  own  way,  the  highest  good  of  the 
living  body  of  humanity. 

159 


SPIRIT  OF  THE  NEW  PHILOSOPHY 

The  personal  problem,  then,  for  every  one 
is  how  to  look  beneath  the  externals  and  rec- 
ognize clearly  the  true  Self  in  our  fellows 
rather  than  the  surface  selves  vnth  which  we 
are  constantly  coming  into  conflict;  and  also, 
how  to  realize  habitually  that  in  all  our  rela- 
tions with  others,  we  are  actually  dealing  with 
"others"  who,  in  their  essential  beings,  are  one 
with  ourselves.  We  must  remember  that  to 
make  any  fact  a  fact  of  consciousness,  we  must 
accustom  ourselves  to  the  persistent  thinking 
of  the  fact.  When  tempted,  as  we  constantly 
are,  to  see  in  others  only  the  things  that  sepa- 
rate us,  we  must  turn  resolutely  away  from  all 
these  surface  expressions,  realizing  that  they 
do  not  express  the  real  man  or  woman ;  and  we 
must  hold  that  real  Self  in  them  constantly  be- 
fore us. 

But  some  one  may  say:  "If  I  should  hold 
that  attitude  toward  other  people,  I  leave  them 
free  to  take  all  manner  of  advantage  of  me, 
since  they  are  still  living  their  lives  from  the 
surface,  and  not  from  their  true  centers." 
This  is  only  another  phase  of  the  old  fear 
thought  that  is  constantly  keeping  people  from 

160 


MAN'S  UNITY  WITH  HIS  FELLOWS 

living  out  their  highest  and  best.  As  a  matter 
of  fact,  if  we  would  only  dare  frankly  to  treat 
men  and  women,  not  as  they  appear  to  us  or 
even  to  themselves,  but  as  they  really  are  in 
their  deeper  Selfhood,  it  would  do  more  to  help 
them  discover  their  true  Selves  than  all  the 
preaching  or  writing  in  the  world ;  for  it  would 
be  our  deepest  life  calling  their  deepest  life 
into  being,  and  in  time,  their  deepest  Selves 
could  not  fail  to  respond  to  the  call. 

It  must  be  self-evident,  however,  that  no  one 
can  ever  discover  the  deeper  Self  in  another 
until  he  has  first  of  all  found  it  within  himself. 
The  sense  of  human  unity  comes  not  from  with- 
out but  ever  and  onlv  from  within.  It  is  a 
consciousness,  not  a  theory,  even  though  the 
theory  may  be  based  on  scientific  facts  or 
philosophical  reasoning.  It  is  only  as  one 
comes  actually  to  experience  the  true  Self 
within  that  he  comes  to  see  the  same  essential 
Self  in  all  others.  It  is  only  as  he  himself  has 
ceased  to  live  the  divided  and  distracted  life  at 
the  surface,  that  he  can  see  beneath  the  surface 
life  of  those  about  him,  and  discern  in  them 
what  he  has  already  found  in  himself. 

161 


SPIRIT  OF  THE  NEW  PHILOSOPHY 

Jesus  could  call  all  men  brothers,  and  treat 
them  as  such,  simply  because  he  had  become 
supremely  Self-conscious.  St.  Francis  of  As- 
sisi  could  live  the  brotherly  life  with  all,  even 
with  birds  and  animals,  only  because  he  had 
found  within  himself  the  true  life  that  is  always 
and  everywhere  one  life.  Walt  Whitman 
could  say,  "I  am  one  with  the  highest  and 
I  am  one  with  the  lowest,"  only  because  he  had 
entered  into  the  same  great  experience  within 
himself.  All  going  forth  to  my  brother,  in  any 
real  sense,  is  a  going  in  to  my  Self.  True 
Self-knowledge  alone  leads  to  true  knowledge 
of  others. 

This  is  the  great  achievement  we  seek  to- 
day, and  it  is  clear  that  it  must  be  an  achieve- 
ment of  the  spirit  in  man.  Slowly,  and  yet 
surely,  it  is  dawning  upon  minds  everywhere 
that  the  unity  we  seek,  and  that  we  must  as- 
sm'edly  find  unless  life  is  to  descend  to  lower 
levels,  is  a  feeling  more  than  a  belief;  it  is  a 
consciousness  more  than  it  is  a  theorv;  it 
must  be  born  in  the  inner  lives  of  men  first,  if 
it  is  to  have  any  outward  existence  worthy  the 
name.     If  the  unity  we  are  striving  to  attain 

162 


MAN'S  UNITY  WITH  HIS  FELLOWS 

in  human  life  is  to  be  worth  all  the  prodigious 
sacrifices  men  have  made,  then  it  must  possess 
such  a  profound  moral  and  spiritual  content  as 
shall  give  birth  to  a  new  spirit  in  man,  revital- 
izing, all-compelling  and  universal. 


163 


CHAPTER  VIII 

man's  unity  with  god 

"A  man  who  doubts  his  own  Godhood  is  an  infidel,  for  in  us 
God  lives  and  moves  and  has  His  being,  just  as  'in  Him  we  live 
and  move  and  have  our  being.' " 

"Here  in  the  Light,  I  am  I,  and  Thou  art  Thou;  but  out 
there  in  the  surrounding  dark,  you  and  I  and  God  are  One." — 
Professor  Carpenter. 

IT  may  seem  strange  that  we  have  delayed 
the  consideration  of  man's  relations  to  God 
to  this  point  in  our  discussion,  but  there  is  a 
reason  for  it  that  we  hope  to  make  clear.  The 
old  and  time-honored  method  is  to  begin  with 
God  first.  After  attempting  to  prove  His  ex- 
istence by  the  cosmological,  the  ontological,  the 
moral  and  all  the  other  conventional  lines  of 
argument,  the  older  theologians  assumed  cer- 
tain things  to  be  true  of  His  nature,  and  then 
they  inferred  from  these  assumptions  the  char- 
acter of  the  Godliead.  Having  thus  deter- 
mined, through  abstract  reasoning  and  logical 

164. 


MAN'S  UNITY  WITH  GOD 

processes,  the  kind  of  God  that  exists,  they 
then  proceeded  to  describe  how  this  God  at 
length  drew  near  to  man  and  made  Himself 
known  by  means  of  special  revelations  and 
through  various  mediating  channels. 

The  final  act  in  the  process  was  one  of  faith 
on  man's  part,  by  which  he  threw  open  the  door 
of  his  heart  and  admitted  the  God  who  had  thus 
approached  him  from  the  outside.  This  con- 
ception in  its  general  outlines  has  had  all  the 
advantage  of  being  a  logical  system  of  closely 
reasoned  thought  about  God  and  His  relations 
to  man ;  and,  while  it  was  based  on  assumptions 
and  its  logic  was  not  always  flawless,  still,  it 
is  no  wonder  that  for  so  many  centuries  it  has 
largely  dominated  the  mind  of  man  in  his 
thought  about  God. 

But,  as  man  has  been  forced  to  learn  all 
along  the  way,  so  he  is  beginning  to  realize 
again  to-day  that 

"Our   little   systems   have   their  day, 
They  have  their  day   and  cease  to  be; 
They  are  but  broken  lights  of  Thee, 
And  Thou,  O  Lord,  art  more  than  they." 

And  men  of  late  have  been  turning  away  from 

165 


SPIRIT  OF  THE  NEW  PHILOSOPHY 

these  familiar  logical  processes,  these  hard  and 
fast  systems  of  thought  about  God,  with  their 
rigid  statements  as  to  who  God  was,  and  what 
He  thought,  and  how  He  acted,  and  have  been 
reaching  out  in  earnestness  of  spirit  for  a  God 
who  was  close  and  near  and  immediate,  a  real 
God  who  should  more  truly  satisfy  the  deepest 
cravings  of  their  beings. 

The  unmistakable  fact  is  that  in  his  own 
life,  in  his  experience  and  in  his  thought,  man 
has  been  outgrowing  the  God  of  these  older 
theological  systems,  and  has  come  to  feel  their 
utter  inadequacy  for  to-day.  Just  as  Emer- 
son asked  the  question  in  his  Divinity  School 
Address  in  1838:  "Why  should  we  not  have 
a  first-hand  and  immediate  experience  of 
God?"  so  men  everywhere  to-day  are  crjang 
out  for  an  original,  first-hand  experience  of 
God.  Earnest  souls  are  asking  why,  if  God 
indeed  be  the  living  God,  it  should  be  neces- 
sary for  men  of  to-day  to  derive  all  their  knowl- 
edge of  Him  from  ancient  prophets  who  lived 
and  died  thousands  of  years  ago?  Do  we  not 
stand  as  close  to  the  original  sources  of  knowl- 
edge of  God  as  did  the  ancients, — the  world  of 

166 


MAN'S  UNITY  WITH  GOD 

consciousness  within  and  the  world  of  nature 
without?  Why  cannot  we  have  our  own  ex- 
perience with  God,  instead  of  depending  so 
wholly  on  second-hand  experiences  of  others? 
Great  as  is  the  knowledge  of  God  that  has 
come  to  the  world  through  the  consciousness  of 
Jesus  and  the  other  true  seers  of  the  race,  we 
realize  that  Jesus  taught  that  men  might  at- 
tain to  knowledge  of  God,  not  alone  through 
him,  but  each  one  for  himself,  through  his  own 
inner  consciousness.  Jesus  did  not  come  to 
take  the  place  of  God,  but  rather  to  show  men 
how  they  might  find  God  for  themselves,  even 
as  he  had  found  Him,  and  then  live  their  lives 
daily  in  Him  and  with  Him. 

He  little  understands  the  religious  unrest  of 
these  times  who  does  not  see  that,  deeper  than 
all  else,  is  this  well-nigh  universal  thirst  for  a 
real  God,  that  is,  a  God  who  is  real,  who  lives, 
moves  and  has  His  actual  being  in  one's  own 
personal  experience.  Towards  the  close  of  his 
life,  Tennj^son  once  said  to  a  friend:  "My 
chief  desire  is  to  have  a  new  vision  of  God." 
In  these  w'ords,  the  great  poet  has  voiced 
the  deepest  desire  of  all  seriously  minded  men 

167 


SPIRIT  OF  THE  NEW  PHILOSOPHY 

and  women.  If  we  are  ever  to  regain  "the  lost 
sense  of  God,"  which  Tolstoi  declared  to  be  the 
fundamental  need  of  our  age,  it  will  only  be  as 
in  some  way  we  do  succeed  in  catching  a  fresh 
vision  of  God.  The  hopeful  sign  for  religion 
is  that  such  a  fresh  vision  is  actually  dawning 
on  the  world,  bringing  to  countless  souls  a  liv- 
ing, first-hand  experience  with  God. 

The  modern  approach  to  God,  however,  is 
not  from  without  but  from  within.  We  do  not 
begin  first  with  God,  but  with  man.  Chrono- 
logically, God  undoubtedly  comes  first,  but  it 
is  not  the  chronological  God  whom  we  seek;  it 
is  the  living  God  of  the  present  who  alone  can 
satisfy  man's  hunger  and  thirst.  So  that  we 
do  not  seek  God  through  logical  processes,  and 
then  argue  from  our  conclusions  as  to  God's 
relations  to  man.  But  we  discover  Him,  if  at 
all,  in  our  own  inner  consciousness;  and  not 
until  then  are  we  truly  able  to  understand  any- 
thing of  His  relations  to  His  world  and  to  hu- 
manity as  a  whole. 

We  do  not  begin  by  defining  Him;  in  fact 
we  care  less  and  less  about  any  definitions  of 
God,  for  we  realize  that  every  definition  al- 

168 


MAN'S  UNITY  WITH  GOD 

ways  leaves  out  more  than  it  puts  in.  But  we 
are  intensely  concerned  with  knowing,  feeling, 
experiencing  for  ourselves  the  immediate  con- 
sciousness of  God.  We  are  learning  at  last 
that  the  pathway  to  God  lies  ever  and  always 
through  man's  own  inner  being.  This  is  by 
no  means  to  disparage  the  paths  that  lead 
through  nature  to  God,  especially  in  view  of 
the  tremendous  light  that  science  is  throwing 
on  these  paths;  but  it  is  to  confess  that  no  one 
sees  clearly  the  paths  that  lead  through  nature, 
until  he  has  first  learned  to  walk  in  the  path- 
way that  lies  through  human  nature. 

Without  recalling  the  various  definitions 
that  have  been  given  of  religion,  there  is  no 
question  but  that  the  essence  of  religion,  what- 
ever outward  forms  it  may  take,  is  the  con- 
sciousness of  God;  and  the  ultimate  goal  of 
religion  has  always  been  to  secure  union  with 
God.  This  is  by  no  means  all  that  constitutes 
religion,  but  it  most  certainly  is  its  true  heart 
and  soul.  Organized  religion  has  always 
tended  to  lay  the  chief  stress  on  other  things, 
like  the  sacraments,  the  creed,  baptism,  the 
manner  of  worship,  etc.,  but  the  truly  great  re- 

169 


SPIRIT  OF  THE  NEW  PHILOSOPHY 

ligious  leaders  in  every  age  have  recognized 
clearly  that  the  only  salvation  worthy  the  name 
was  the  life  that  resulted  from  union  with  the 
Divine.  To  them,  all  dogmas  and  every  ec- 
clesiastical rite  or  ceremony  were  only  the 
means  to  that  great  end.  They  might  help  to- 
ward such  union,  in  which  case  thev  were  to  be 
employed  gratefully;  or  again,  they  might 
stand  as  actual  hindrances,  in  which  case  they 
were  frankly  to  be  rejected.  The  end  of  re- 
ligion to  all  true  Saviours,  and  the  end  never 
to  be  lost  sight  of,  has  been  the  finding  of  God 
and  living  one's  life  in  union  with  Him. 

This  was  just  what  religion  meant  to  Jesus. 
The  divinity  of  Jesus  does  not  depend  on  the 
historicity  of  the  birth-stories,  or  on  any  so- 
called  miracle,  but  alone  on  his  unique  God- 
consciousness.  He  felt  himself  to  be  one  with 
God.  To  him,  God  was  not  a  formula  to  be 
explained,  or  a  dogma  to  be  believed,  least  of 
all  a  name  to  conjure  by.  He  was  the  won- 
drous life  welling  up  in  him  as  consciousness, 
and  constituting  in  him  his  true  essential  Self- 
hood. "The  works  that  I  do  are  not  mine,  but 
the  Father's  who  sent  me." 

170 


MAN'S  UNITY  WITH  GOD 

And  what  was  to  him  an  actual  experience 
in  consciousness,  he  knew  was  an  experience 
possible  to  all  men  and  women,  when  once  they 
had  awakened  to  the  meaning  of  their  true 
Selfhood.  When  he  said:  "I  am  come  that 
ye  may  have  life,  and  may  have  it  more 
abundantly,"  he  was  speaking  of  the  more 
abundant  life  that  issues  forth  from  a  man's 
consciousness  of  his  vital  union  with  God. 
His  last  prayer  for  his  disciples  reveals  this: 
"That  ye  all  may  be  one,  as  I  and  my  Father 
are  one.  .  .  .  That  they  may  be  one,  even  as 
Thou,  Father,  art  in  me,  and  I  in  Thee,  so 
may  they  also  be  in  us.  ...  I  in  them  and 
Thou  in  me,  that  they  may  be  perfected  into 
One." 

The  mystic's  "way  of  life,"  in  every  age, 
has  been  "the  way"  that  led  eventually,  after 
the  "darkness"  and  the  "illumination"  had 
been  passed  through,  to  the  beatific  vision,  the 
ineffable  bliss  of  union  with  God.  When  we 
use  the  word  "mystic"  as  applied  to  religion, 
we  need  to  explain  just  what  is  meant  by  the 
term,  especially  to-day  with  the  new  awaken- 
ing of  interest  in  the  subject.     To  many  peo- 

171 


SPIRIT  OF  THE  NEW  PHILOSOPHY 

pie  the  word  carries  little  or  no  meaning;  to 
others  it  has  an  ominous  and  forbidding  sound, 
as  though  the  safe  and  beaten  track  were  be- 
ing forsaken  for  mere  will-o'-the-wisps. 

By  mysticism  we  mean  that  type  of  religion 
which  puts  the  emphasis  on  immediate  aware- 
ness of  one's  relation  to  God,  on  direct  and 
intimate  consciousness  of  the  Divine  Presence 
within  as  well  as  without.  In  other  words,  it 
is  religion  in  its  most  intense,  living  and  spir- 
itual stage.  Just  because  mysticism,  then, 
means  religion  grounded  primarily  in  experi- 
ence, rather  than  based  on  church  or  creed,  it 
has  peculiar  interest  for  an  age  that  demands 
as  the  bisis  of  truth  the  testimony  of  experi- 
ence. 

This  type  of  religion  is  by  no  means  confined 
to  Christianity  but  belongs  in  some  real  degree 
to  all  faiths;  for  first-hand  experiences  of  a 
Divine  and  Higher  Presence  are  as  old  as  hu- 
man personality;  in  fact,  they  constitute  the 
beginnings  of  all  religions.  Dr.  Brinton,  in 
"Rehgions  of  Primitive  Peoples,"  says  that 
"all  religions  depend  for  their  origin  and  con- 
tinuance directly  upon  inspiration,"  that  is, 

172 


MAN'S  UNITY  WITH  GOD 

upon  direct  and  immediate  experiences,  not  on 
books  or  institutions  or  creeds. 

All  sacred  writings,  all  creeds  and  rituals, 
all  institutions  of  every  religion  are  the  prod- 
uct, not  the  cause,  of  these  first-hand  experi- 
ences in  the  inner  lives  of  men.  The  men  who 
have  made  religion  a  vital  power  for  any  peo- 
ple or  any  age,  have  always  been  the  men  who 
beheved  they  stood  face  to  face  with  God,  and 
heard  His  voice  and  felt  His  presence  in  their 
souls.  Whence  came  the  sacred  writings  of 
all  religious  faiths?  They  were  not  miracu- 
lously prepared  and  let  down  from  the  skies. 
They  are  simply  the  written  experiences  of 
men  in  all  ages  who  believed  they  heard  the 
voice  of  God,  that  in  their  own  inner  conscious- 
ness His  truth  or  His  will  had  been  revealed. 

This  direct  consciousness  of  God,  this  inner 
experience  of  the  Great  Reality,  is,  however, 
not  confined  to  a  few  chosen  spirits,  or  the  rare 
"geniuses"  in  religion.  "There  are  multitudes 
of  men  and  women  in  out  of  the  way  places,  in 
backwoods  towns  and  on  uneventful  farms, 
who  are  the  salt  of  the  earth  and  the  light  of 
the   world    in   their   respective    communities, 

173 


SPIRIT  OF  THE  NEW  PHILOSOPHY 

simply  because  they  have  had  experiences 
which  revealed  to  them  realities  wliich  their 
neighbors  missed,  and  powers  to  live  by  which 
the  mere  church-goers  failed  to  find."  Many 
such  have  been  looked  upon  with  suspicion  by 
their  conventional  neighbors;  they  have  been 
misunderstood,  they  have  often  been  called 
"free-thinkers,"  or  even  "infidels,"  because 
thev  could  not  conform  to  the  traditional  theo- 
logical  tests.  The  mystic  has  been  the  martyr 
of  every  age.  But  he  has  ever  been  the  true 
conservator  of  real  religion  none-the-less;  and 
without  him,  religion  would  have  long  since 
vanished  from  the  world.  For  the  soul  of  re- 
ligion is  ever  and  always — mysticism, — the  im- 
mediate consciousness  of  God  within  the  soul 
of  man. 

But  what  we  have  discovered  to  be  the  soul 
of  religion  proves  also  to  be  the  deepest  soul  of 
life.  In  every  individual  there  is  something 
of  the  mystical  from  which  no  one  can  escape. 
When  we  stop  to  reflect,  we  find  that  in  addi- 
tion to  the  outer  hfe  we  Hve,  there  is  a  deep 
inner  life,  however  indifferent  we  may  be  to 
its  true  significance.     Even  though  we  may 

174 


MAN'S  UNITY  WITH  GOD 

not  yet  have  attained  to  unity  within  our  true 
Self,  there  are  times  for  all  of  us  when  our 
finite  selves  do  open  out  on  the  Infinite;  our 
particular  and  limited  consciousness  does 
realize  occasionally  that  it  is  but  a  part  of  a 
Universal  Consciousness.  Even  the  most  con- 
firmed rationalist  cannot  escape  his  mystical 
moments,  however  rare  they  may  be,  for  the 
experience  belongs  in  some  measure  to  every 
life ;  onl}^  most  of  us  do  not  recognize  it  as  such 
or  appreciate  its  real  meaning. 

History  also  discloses  the  fact  that  the 
mystic  has  been  the  true  saviour,  not  only  of 
spiritual  religion,  but  of  all  that  is  highest  and 
best  in  the  life  of  humanity.  He  has  been  the 
leaven  in  the  lump,  the  flame  within  the  smoke, 
the  vital  spark  in  the  otherwise  dead  body. 
He  has  saved  humanity  again  and  again  from 
being  utterly  submerged  under  scholastic 
formalism,  blind  selfishness  or  stupefying  in- 
difference that  were  stifling  to  man's  true 
spirit. 

Far  from  being  the  unpractical  dreamers 
thev  are  too  often  conceived  to  have  been,  they 
have  braved  storms,  endured  conflicts,  and  gone 

175 


SPIRIT  OF  THE  NEW  PHILOSOPHY 

through  fiery  afflictions  that  would  have  over- 
whehned  the  one  whose  "anchor  did  not  reach 
within  the  veil."  They  have  led  great  reforms 
and  championed  movements  of  vital  signifi- 
cance to  the  people.  They  have  been  prophets 
of  truth  who  have  blazed  the  way  to  new  and 
higher  view-points.  They  have  been  the 
spiritual  leaders  who  have  inspired  the  dis- 
pirited hosts  and  led  them  on  to  higher  levels 
of  life.  They  have  ever  been  the  God-sent 
men  and  women  who  have  saved  mankind  from 
stagnation  and  marshaled  the  race  along  lines 
of  truer  progress.  And  they  have  been  able 
to  render  these  high  services,  because  they  felt 
themselves  allied  inwardly  with  a  Power  larger 
than  themselves,  who  was  working  with  them 
and  through  them. 

There  is  no  question  that  there  are  "mystical 
experiences"  which  are  abnormal  and  patho- 
logical, but  there  is  no  more  reason  to  narrow 
the  word  to  cover  this  type  alone,  than  there 
is  for  limiting  the  word  "love"  to  pathological 
love  alone.  Mystical  experience  may  stretch 
over  all  the  degrees,  from  the  most  perfect 
sanity  to  utter  disorganization  of  the  self;  it  is 

176 


MAN'S  UNITY  WITH  GOD 

the  sane  and  normal  mysticism  that  alone  con- 
cerns us  now.  It  is  President  King  of  Ober- 
lin  College  who  says:  "The  truly  mystical 
may  be  summed  up  as  simply  a  protest  in  favor 
of  the  whole  man, — the  entire  personality.  It 
says  that  men  can  experience  and  live  and  feel 
and  do  mucli  more  than  thev  can  formulate, 
define,  explain  or  even  fully  express.  Living 
is  more  than  thinking."  This  is  only  another 
way  of  saying  that  all  life,  in  its  deepest  as- 
pects, proceeds  from  mystical  sources. 

The  clear  conclusion  from  all  man's  age- 
long searching,  is  that  there  is  no  direct  path- 
way to  God  through  the  intellect  solely;  the 
existence  of  God  never  has  been,  and  never  can 
be,  proved  by  purely  intellectual  processes,  as 
one  would  demonstrate  a  problem  in  mathema- 
tics. If  we  are  limited  in  our  search  for  truth 
to  the  outer  world  only,  our  knowledge,  great 
and  wonderful  and  suggestive  as  it  is,  must 
forever  fall  far  short  of  reality.  All  who  have 
sought  reality  with  the  scientist  in  the  external 
world  merelv,  or  with  the  hedonist  in  the  world 
of  the  senses  merely,  or  with  the  philosopher  in 
the  world  of  pure  ideas  merely,  or  with  the 

177 


SPIRIT  OF  THE  NEW  PHILOSOPHY 

historian  in  the  past  merely,  have  been  doomed 
to  bitter  disai^pointment. 

All  who  have  ever  actually  found  Reality, 
since  the  world  began,  have  found  it  in  the 
same  way, — by  looking  within.  All  who  have 
ever  come  truly  to  know  God,  whatever  form 
their  religion  may  have  taken,  have  always 
found  Him  in  the  same  place, — ^within.  The 
inner  door  alone  swings  open  to  Reality;  and 
religious  certainty  has  always  and  ever  been 
found  only  within;  not  in  book  or  church  or 
creed,  but  in  the  whisper  of  the  still,  small 
voice. 

For  as  Jesus  said:  "The  kingdom  of  God 
is  within  you."  Only  after  all  outward  search 
is  abandoned  and  one  turns  at  last  to  the  world 
within,  will  man  find  what  he  seeks,  and  what 
every  soul,  when  it  awakens,  will  desire  above 
everything  else.  For  all  knowledge  and  dis- 
covery of  God  is,  in  the  last  analysis,  Self- 
discovery  and  Self-knowledge.  The  con- 
sciousness of  unity  with  God  can  only  be  at- 
tained through  true  Self-consciousness.  The 
pathway  to  God  is  the  pathway  of  the  inner 
life. 

178 


MAN'S  UNITY  WITH  GOD 

Why  this  should  be  so,  becomes  self-evident 
when  we  recall  the  conclusions  to  which  we 
have  already  come.  We  have  seen  that  the 
ultimate  in  man,  the  real  Self  that  lies  back  of 
all  the  "hundred  selves"  on  the  surface  of  his 
life,  is  his  true  being,  unchanged  and  per- 
manent. This  true  Self  dwells  in  all  men, 
though  but  few  as  yet  have  become  conscious 
of  it.  We  have  also  found  in  nature,  the  outer 
world,  a  something, — a  larger  Self,  a  World- 
spirit, — ^call  it  what  you  will,  with  which  we 
seem  to  be  able  to  enter  into  communion,  at 
least  in  our  highest  moments.  We  have  also 
seen  that  the  consciousness  of  unity  within, 
with  nature  or  with  our  fellows,  comes  to  us  not 
through  our  surface  "selves"  but  only  through 
our  deeper  Self. 

We  experience  our  oneness  with  nature,  not 
when  we  contemplate  its  outer  aspects  merely, 
but  when  we  penetrate  to  its  inner  meaning; 
we  realize  our  unity  with  our  fellows  only  when 
we  pierce  beneath  their  surface  selves  to  the 
deeper  beings  within.  The  one  aspect  of  life, 
then,  of  which  we  may  predicate  unity,  is  this 
true  Self  in  us,  in  others  and  in  all  things. 

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SPIRIT  OF  THE  NEW  PHILOSOPHY 

What  is  this  true  Self,  the  consciousness  of 
which  alone  brings  us  into  union  with  nature, 
with  our  fellows  and  with  God?  It  is  nothing 
less  than  the  God  in  us,  who  also  in-dwells  all 
things.  This  duality  in  unity  which  we  have 
found  to  be  the  essence  of  the  Self  in  us,  has 
also  been  regarded  by  the  profoundest  think- 
ers as  constituting  the  essential  nature  of  Re- 
ality or  God.  The  ego  in  man,  or  his  true 
Self,  is  then,  literally,  the  microcosm  of  God  in 
its  most  fundamental  aspect. 

Let  us  put  this  great  truth  in  another  way. 
1.  There  is  but  one  substance,  being,  life- 
force;  and  that  substance,  being,  life-force  is 
Reality  or  God.  2.  All  phenomena  of  every 
kind,  since  all  that  is  has  come  forth  from  be- 
ing or  substance,  are  manifestations,  differen- 
tiations, expressions  of  God.  3.  Of  all  these 
manifestations,  humanity  is  the  highest  at- 
tained in  the  evolutionary  process  as  yet.  4. 
The  most  highly  developed  men  and  women, 
then,  are  the  fullest  and  clearest  manifesta- 
tions of  God  of  which  we  know  anything,  at 
least  on  this  planet. 

Or,  as  the  old  statement  of  Divine  imma- 

180 


MAN'S  UNITY  WITH  GOD 

nency  puts  it:  God  sleeping  in  the  stone, 
awakening  in  the  plant,  coming  to  conscious- 
ness in  the  animal,  coming  to  self-conscious- 
ness in  human  life,  and  coming  to  fullest  self- 
consciousness  in  the  great  souls,  the  seers  and 
saviours  of  the  race.  Once  these  propositions 
are  admitted,  it  becomes  clear  that  the  truest 
way  to  arrive  at  the  knowledge  of  God  is 
through  the  study  of  man ;  and  that  if  man  is 
ever  to  find  his  real  unity  with  God,  it  must 
be  through  the  discovery  of  the  Self  which  is 
the  highest  manifestation  of  God  within  him. 
The  problem  of  God,  then,  becomes  the  prob- 
lem of  man;  and  the  quest  for  God  becomes 
man's  search  for  his  true  Self. 

From  the  beginning  man  has  been  rediscov- 
ering God  constantly,  and  in  his  latest  discov- 
ery he  finds  that  God  is  that  supreme  cosmic 
and  social  organism  of  which  he  himself  is  a 
constituent  part  and  a  most  significant  organ 
and  function.  He  is  one  of  God's  minds,  and 
through  this  human  mind  which  is  at  the  same 
time  the  mind  of  God,  he  has  discovered  his 
true  Self,  which  is  one  with  the  true  Self  in 
every  other  individual  and  one  with  the  Greater 

181 


SPIRIT  OF  THE  NEW  PHILOSOPHY 

Self  of  the  universe.  "Thus  has  God,  the 
whole,  found  Himself  in  man,  the  part,  as  man 
becomes  conscious  of  his  true  being;  and  thus 
has  man,  the  part,  found  himself  in  God  and 
of  God,  the  whole.  At  last  God  knows  Him- 
self as  God  in  man.  At  last  man  knows  him- 
self as  man  in  God." 

As  Elmer  T.  Gates,  the  eminent  psycholo- 
gist, says:  "The  individual  self  is  part  of  the 
Total  Self.  You  trace  your  pedigree  back  to 
the  beginningless  Totality, — the  All.  You 
have  the  Universehood  in  you.  Whatever 
God  is,  that  thou  art  also." 

This  true  Self,  then,  is  the  essential  reality 
in  man,  and  is  not  only  from  God,  as  all  things 
must  be  from  God,  but  is  a  literal  part  of  God 
and  therefore,  one  with  Him.  That  this  is  the 
clear  and  immistakable  conclusion  to  which 
modem  philosophy  has  come,  the  following 
quotations  will  illustrate.  Professor  Carpen- 
ter says:  "The  long  passion  of  our  humanity 
is  borne  in  all  its  multitudinous  variety  by 
God."  "God's  hfe  is  simply  all  Hfe,"  says 
Professor  Royce  of  Harvard.  "It  is  this 
thought  of  the  suffering  God  who  is  just  our 

182 


MAN'S  UNITY  WITH  GOD 

own  true  Self,  who  actually  and  in  our  flesh 
bears  the  sins  of  the  world,  and  whose  natural 
body  is  pierced  by  the  wounds  which  hateful 
fools  inflict  upon  Him.  .  .  .  God  is  not  in  His 
ultimate  essence  another  being  than  yourself. 
.  .  .  You  are  truly  one  with  God  and  part  of 
His  very  life.  He  is  the  self  of  your  self,  the 
soul  of  your  soul,  the  life  of  your  life." 

Fichte,  the  great  German  philosopher,  says : 
"An  insight  into  the  absolute  unity  of  the  hu- 
man existence  with  the  divine,  is  certainly  the 
profoundest  knowledge  that  man  can  attain. 
When  he  realizes  that  the  divine  life  and  en- 
ergy actually  live  in  him,  then,  whatever  comes 
to  pass  around  him,  nothing  will  appear 
strange  or  unaccountable.  He  knows  that  he 
is  in  God's  world  and  that  nothing  can  be,  that 
does  not  directly  tend  to  good.  His  whole 
outward  existence  flows  forth  softly  and  gently 
from  his  inner  being,  and  issues  out  into  reality 
without  difficulty  or  hindrance." 

It  is  clear,  then,  that  our  most  modern 
science  and  philosophy  is  practically  at  one 
with  the  deepest  spiritual  teachings  of  all  re- 
ligions as  to  the  relation  between  God  and 

183 


SPIRIT  OF  THE  NEW  PHILOSOPHY 

man.  It  is  the  Universal  Being,  the  Cosmic 
Mind,  which  alone  is  permanent,  which  alone 
is  identical,  which  alone  constitutes  the  im- 
mortal Self;  and  the  real  being,  the  true  Self  in 
each  individual,  is  only  this  Universal  Being 
differentiated  in  us.  "It  passes  and  repasses 
like  an  electric  stream  of  energy;  and  through 
the  perfect,  unbroken  and  indivisible  unity  of 
its  own  cosmic  body  and  spirit,  it  binds  and 
holds  all  its  transitory  and  ephemeral  forms 
into  a  perfect  cosmic  and  organic  oneness." 

Our  minds  are  its  mind,  as  our  bodies  are  its 
body.  Our  memories  too  are,  in  reality,  its 
memories.  In  the  partial  and  personal  mean- 
ing of  the  word,  the  "I"  of  to-day  is  a  dis- 
tinctly different  "I"  from  that  of  yesterday; 
but  in  the  integral  or  cosmic  sense,  the  "I"  of 
to-day  is  the  self-same  and  continuous  "I"  as 
that  of  yesterday.  We  retain  our  human  in- 
dividuality only  through  the  universal  and  di- 
vine individuality  of  God. 

The  "Know  thyself"  of  the  old  Oracle  has 
become  a  catch-phrase  to-day,  but  its  real 
significance  is  lost  for  most  men.  Self-knowl- 
edge to  the  old  philosophers  implied,  not  a 

184 


MAN'S  UNITY  WITH  GOD 

cursory  knowledge  of  our  mental  states  or  our 
personal  traits,  but  it  meant  the  perception  of 
the  true  Self,  and  the  recognition  of  the  one- 
ness of  this  Self  in  man  with  the  reality  of 
God,  rather  than  with  the  phenomenal  world. 

If,  standing  on  the  bank  of  a  stream,  you 
should  imagine  yourself  to  be  moving  onward 
with  the  current,  now  tossed  in  air,  now  drawn 
under  the  waters,  your  condition  would  illus- 
trate the  usual  state  of  mind  for  most  people. 
For  just  so  we  observe  the  passing  stream  of 
the  phenomenal  and  identify  ourselves  with  it, 
oblivious  of  the  fact  that  the  true  Self,  the  real 
man,  the  Knower,  is  himself  unmoved,  un- 
changed, the  actual  Observer  of  the  stream. 

This,  then,  in  brief  is  the  newer  conception 
of  God  that  is  at  the  same  time  the  oldest  con- 
ception, and  that  is  making  God  real  to  count- 
less lives  throughout  the  world,  for  whom  the 
old  theology  had  lost  its  meaning.  It  is  the 
idea  of  a  Being  who  is  not  apart  from  us,  but 
a  very  part  of  us,  who  need  not  be  approached 
with  hesitancy  through  a  number  of  mediators, 
but  who  can  be  found  immediately  deep  within 
one's  own  life,  the  One  in  whom  we  all  live  and 

185 


SPIRIT  OF  THE  NEW  PHILOSOPHY 

move  and  have  our  being,  even  as  He  lives  and 
moves  and  has  His  being  in  us.  And  we  find 
our  unity  in  Him  as  we  become  conscious  that 
our  true  Self  is  indeed  the  God-in-us. 

As  a  recent  writer  has  most  beautifully  and 
truly  expressed  it:  "God,  then,  using  the 
familiar,  traditional,  religious  name  for  the 
Universal  Self,  in  reality  is  our  Home,  our 
great  Companion,  our  enfolding  Lover,  the 
deepest  Self  within  the  self,  the  Larger  Self 
which  embraces  all  our  narrower  selves.  He 
is  the  all-flooding  Light  within  which  we  are 
the  rays;  He  is  the  creative  Fire  within  which 
we  are  as  sparks  and  flames.  Language  is  all 
too-feeble  to  describe  the  closeness  and  in- 
timacy with  which  He  enfolds  us  and  enthuses 
us;  penetrative  as  light,  pervasive  as  air;  in 
subtler  contact  with  us  than  is  the  ether  to  the 
inflow  and  throughflow  of  which  the  solidest 
material  off^ers  no  bar  or  hindrance;  more  in- 
timate in  His  embrace  of  our  spirits  than  that 
wherewith  the  ocean  gathers  the  drops  of  water 
within  it,  or  the  earth-crust  enfolds  indistin- 
guishably  the  mountain  roots ;  Life  of  our  life, 
Breath  of  our  breath.  Soul  of  our  soul;  all- 

186 


MAN'S  UNITY  WITH  GOD 

shadowing,  all-indwelling;  'the  fulness  that 
filleth  all  things.'  " 

Something  at  which  these  words  but  feebly 
hint,  is  what  God  is  to  us  in  reality.  But  the 
old,  false  feeling  of  separateness  has  seemed  to 
put  Him  far  away  from  most  lives ;  it  has  fash- 
ioned Him  as  a  mighty  individual  set  over  in 
opposition  to  us,  to  be  in  some  way  won  over 
to  our  side,  or  else  forever  feared.  But  this 
superficial,  childish  and  illusory  idea  of  God 
is  altogether  false.  It  creates  a  gulf  between 
God  and  man  which  never  existed;  and  in  the 
train  of  this  false  thinking  come  all  the  errors, 
false  doctrines,  competitive  theologies  which 
have  only  increased  the  disunity  in  man's  life, 
instead  of  forever  banishing  it. 

The  whole  problem  of  finding  God  and  real- 
izing one's  unity  with  Him  is  exactly  similar  to 
that  of  finding  one's  true  Self.  It  is  altogether 
a  problem  of  consciousness,  that  is,  of  the 
widening  and  deepening  of  one's  consciousness 
so  as  to  include  in  it  facts  that  have  not  yet 
become  an  actual  part  of  one's  experience. 
And  it  rests  with  each  individual  to  decide  just 
what  facts  he  shall  take  into  his  experience  and 

187 


SPIRIT  OF  THE  NEW  PHILOSOPHY 

thus  make  a  part  of  his  conscious  being.  The 
law  that  apphes  is  the  old  simple  law  of  At- 
tention. The  things  to  which  I  give  persistent 
attention  are  inevitably  the  things  that  become 
a  part  of  my  consciousness.  When  a  man 
earnestly  and  sincerely  desires  to  find  God,  he 
will  succeed,  and  he  will  find  the  real  God 
within  himself  first  of  all. 

The  new  light  that  is  shining  for  us  to-day 
is  helping  to  dispel  the  doubts  from  many 
minds,  and  is  clearly  proving  that  the  limita- 
tions resting  upon  our  lives  are  mostly  self- 
imposed;  that,  in  the  main,  we  can  make  our 
lives  whatsoever  we  will ;  that  the  fundamental 
thing  in  our  personal  development  is  the  un- 
folding of  consciousness,  and  that  we  can  take 
into  consciousness  whatever  experiences  and 
knowledge  we  choose  by  simply  centering  our 
attention  along  those  lines. 

We  shall  have  found  our  unity  with  God, 
when  we  have  discovered  the  divineness  of  our 
true  Selves  and  know  ourselves  to  be  one  with 
the  divine  Self  in  all  others. 

"If  thou  wouldst  name  the  Nameless,  and  descend 
Into  the  Temple-cave  of  thine  own  self, 

188 


MAN'S  UNITY  WITH  GOD 

There,  brooding  by  the  central  altar,  thou 
Mayst  haply  learn  the  Nameless  hath  a  voice 
By  which  thou  wilt  abide,  if  thou  be  wise; 
For  knowledge  is   the   swallow  on  the  lake, 
That  sees  and  stirs  the  surface-shadow  there, 
But  never  yet  hath  dipt  into  the  Abysm." 


189 


CHAPTER  IX 

THE   SPIRIT   OF    UNITY   IN    SOCIETY 

"Eager  ye  cling  to  shadows,  dote  on  dreams; 
A  false  self  in  the  midst  ye  plant,  and  make 
A   world    around    which   seems 
Blind  to  the  heights  beyond,  deaf  to  the  sound 
Of  sweet  airs  breathed  from  far  past  Indra's  sky; 
Dumb  to  the  summons  of  the  true  life  kept 
For  him  who  puts  the  false  life  by. 
So  grow  the  strifes  and  lusts  which  make  earth's  woe; 
So  grieve  poor  cheated  hearts  and  flow  salt  tears; 
So   wax    the   passions,   envies,    angers,   hates; 
So  years  chase  blood-stained  years 
With  wild,  red  feet." — Edwin  Arnold. 

IT  may  have  appeared  to  some  that  the  fore- 
going presentation  of  the  principle  of  unity 
as  a  fact  to  be  reahzed  first  in  the  inner  spirit- 
ual consciousness  of  man  may  be  practical  for 
individual  relations,  but  that  it  is  utterly  im- 
practical when  we  seek  to  apply  it  to  a  complex 
whole  like  human  society.  Far  from  this  be- 
ing true,  it  will  now  be  our  endeavor  to  show 
that  it  is  the  only  principle  upon  which  a  truly 

190 


THE  SPIRIT  OF  UNITY  IN  SOCIETY 

great  and  progressive  society  can  ever  be 
based. 

We  may  be  willing  to  admit  that  there  is  a 
true  ego  in  om*selves  and  in  all  other  individual 
men  and  women;  we  may  even  be  able  to  con- 
ceive of  a  cosmic  ego  that  manifests  itself 
through  all  the  phenomena  of  nature,  includ- 
ing man.  But  how  is  it  possible  even  to  im- 
agine a  social  ego,  standing  back  of  all  the 
various  and  diverse  types  of  individuals  that 
constitute  society;  and  even  if  there  were  such 
an  ego,  how  could  society  ever  become  con- 
scious of  it,  as  being  its  true  social  Self? 

As  we  look  out  upon  society  to-day,  we  dis- 
cern everywhere  deep  cleavages  separating 
class  from  class,  and  wide  gulfs  dividing  in- 
dividual from  individual;  and  all  of  these  grow- 
ing out  of  deep-seated  political,  economic, 
social,  intellectual,  moral  and  religious  differ- 
ences. How  is  any  kind  of  genuine  unity 
possible  amid  such  wide-spread  and  deep- 
seated  divisions?  If  society  and  the  individ- 
uals who  compose  it  are  indeed  just  as  they 
appear  to  be,  then  our  quest  for  social  unity 
would   seem   to   be   well-nigh   hopeless.     But 

191 


SPIRIT  OF  THE  NEW  PHILOSOPHY 

suppose  the  society  we  see  is  itself  based  upon 
illusion,  and  that  this  illusion,  so  generally  ac- 
cepted, is  the  cause  of  our  social  disunity, 
might  there  not  then  be  ground  for  hope?  Let 
us  examine  the  facts  more  carefully. 

A  clear  and  impartial  review  of  the  toilsome 
and  tragic  path  over  which  mankind  has  come 
since  the  beginning,  is  most  encouraging  to  the 
idea  of  human  progress,  in  spite  of  all  the  pes- 
simists; for  it  reveals  the  fact  that  man  has 
struggled  upward  most  heroically,  from  the 
blindness  of  the  brute  to  the  imperfect  vision 
of  to-day.  All  along  the  way  he  has  been  sup- 
planting his  old  illusions  with  the  truth. 
Many  forms  of  cruelty  and  injustice  and 
wrong  have  been  banished  from  the  world.  In 
various  striking  respects,  man  has  been  slowly 
learning  to  master  himself, — his  passions,  his 
desires,  his  appetites.  He  has  grown,  on  the 
whole,  much  more  humane,  and  has  developed 
the  spirit  of  altruism  to  an  undreamed  of  de- 
gree. 

But,  in  spite  of  every  improvement  that  has 
been  made  in  the  conditions  of  human  life,  the 
question    forces    itself    upon    us:     Have    we 

192 


THE  SPIRIT  OF  UNITY  IN  SOCIETY 

reached  the  end  of  our  tragic  illusions?  Have 
we  destroyed  and  banished  them  all,  as  yet? 
Have  we  conquered  all  wrongs,  or  have  we 
completely  mastered  ourselves?  Are  we  jus- 
tified in  the  blind  optimism  that  we  are  prac- 
tically "out  of  the  woods"?  Simply  to  ask 
such  questions  is  to  answer  them.  If  any  fur- 
ther proof  were  needed,  the  experiences  of  the 
Great  War  through  which  the  world  has  just 
passed  would  be  conclusive. 

As  we  peer  backward  into  the  past  of  his- 
tory, we  can  plainly  see  to-day  that  many,  per- 
haps almost  all,  of  the  greatest  horrors  and 
tragedies  of  human  life  have  been  due  entirely 
to  human  ignorance  and  blindness.  But  this 
old  and  groaning  world  of  ours  is  still  a  world 
of  tragedies,  despite  all  our  boasted  progress. 
There  are  the  tragedies  of  war  between  nations 
and  races;  the  curse  of  constant  conflicts  be- 
tween social  and  economic  classes,  between  the 
inheriting  and  privileged  rich  and  the  disin- 
herited and  unprivileged  poor;  the  poverty  and 
ignorance  and  degradation  of  the  great  masses 
of  mankind;  the  crime,  drunkenness,  prostitu- 
tion and  disease;  the  selfishness,  greed,  hatred, 

193 


SPIRIT  OF  THE  NEW  PHILOSOPHY 

anger  and  contempt  which  is  almost  universal ; 
the  personal  ill-will,  malice,  envy,  jealousy, 
quarrels,  murder,  which  we  meet  with  every- 
where. 

Is  all  this  tragedy,  horror  and  misery 
normal  and  natural,  and  to  be  forever  perma- 
nent and  incurable?  Must  we  forever  explain 
and  apologize  for  and  even  attempt  to  justify 
such  conditions  on  the  old  ground  that  human 
nature  is  as  it  is,  and  you  cannot  change  it? 
Does  man  act  in  this  way  and  produce  these 
fearful  results  in  his  life  and  conduct,  knowing 
clearly  and  seeing  exactl}'  just  what  the  nature 
of  his  actions  really  is,  conscious  all  the  time 
of  just  what  the  nature  of  this  world  is,  what 
his  own  true  nature  is,  and  what  is  the  true  re- 
lationship between  himself  and  his  fellows? 

Or,  are  the  tragedies  and  sins  of  this  age 
and  of  our  present  civilization  like  so  many  of 
the  minor  tragedies  and  wrongs  of  the  past 
which  have  now  been  ended,  due  entirely,  or 
at  least  essentially,  to  some  blind  belief,  some 
hideous  falsehood,  some  fearful  illusion  which 
has  always  possessed  and  still  possesses  the 
human  mind,  thus  continuing  to  curse  human 

194 


THE  SPIRIT  OF  UNITY  IN  SOCIETY 

life,  to  poison  the  cup  of  enjoyment  and  de- 
stroy the  beauty  of  the  world? 

For  himself,  the  author  beheves  most  sin- 
cerely tliat  the  last  is  the  true  explanation.  It 
is  clear  that  the  mass  of  men  to-day,  with  few, 
rare  exceptions,  are  as  certainly  blind  and 
superstitious  and  are  dominated  by  as  tremen- 
dous an  illusion  concerning  one  thing  at  least, 
as  were  ever  man's  barbarous  and  less  enlight- 
ened ancestors;  and  this  too,  the  most  central 
and  vitally  important  thing  to  him  and  his 
fellows,  his  own  selfhood,  individuality  and 
personality. 

To  what  source  are  due  all  the  crimes  and 
sins,  all  the  sufferings  and  miseries  that  afflict 
the  life  of  mankind?  The  older  theologies 
would  have  ascribed  them  all  to  the  malign  in- 
fluence of  a  personal  Devil,  but  we  know  to- 
day that  the  root  source  out  of  which  they  all 
spring  is  human  selfishness,  and  man  no  longer 
escapes  the  responsibility  of  evil  in  human  life 
by  any  recourse  to  an  hypothetical  Devil;  he 
must  assume  the  responsibility  himself,  for  all 
forms  of  evil  proceed  from  something  within 
himself. 

195 


SPIRIT  OF  THE  NEW  PHILOSOPHY 

This  is  why  Jesus  had  comparatively  httle 
to  say  about  specific  sins,  but  was  always  talk- 
ing about  selfishness,  or  else  its  opposite.  He 
knew  that  the  spirit  of  selfishness  in  man  was 
the  cause  of  all  evil,  whatever  might  be  its  par- 
ticular form.  And  it  was  the  root-source  of 
evil  that  he  sought  to  disclose  and  utterly  de- 
stroy; he  knew  that  if  only  that  could  be  ex- 
tirpated, all  evils  would  vanish.  The  only 
devil  we  recognize  to-day  is  the  old  devil  that 
is  present  wherever  human  selfishness  is  found. 

Back  of  every  crime  and  sin,  of  every  deep- 
est pang  and  heart-ache,  of  every  foul  and  ugly 
blot  on  the  fair  face  of  human  Hfe,  will  be 
found,  in  the  last  analysis,  some  form  of  in- 
dividual or  social  selfishness,  which  always 
separates  one  from  life  and  joy  and  the  sense 
of  unity  with  his  fellows,  and  shuts  him  up  and 
off  in  his  little,  cramped  cell  of  self  which  is  to 
him  a  kind  of  "holy  of  holies,"  the  sacrosanct 
tabernacle  of  his  private  ego.  No  one  who 
reflects  can  doubt  that  selfishness  is  the  root- 
cause  of  practically  every  sin  and  misery  and 
ugliness  in  human  life,  and  that  if  only  selfish- 
ness could  be  utterly  and  completely  destroyed 

196 


THE  SPIRIT  OF  UNITY  IN  SOCIETY 

as  Jesus  Iioped  to  destroy  it,  the  Kingdom  of 
Heaven  would  indeed  come  on  earth,  as  he 
declared  it  would  come  some  day. 

But  can  human  selfishness  ever  be  destroyed, 
— not  diminished  but  destroyed  completely, 
root  and  branch?  We  must  believe  that  it 
can,  or  else  Jesus  and  all  the  other  moral  and 
spiritual  leaders  of  the  race  were  self-deceived, 
— nothing  more  than  blind,  impractical  vision- 
aries, made  harmlessly  insane  by  a  mere  beau- 
tiful dream  that  in  the  nature  of  things  never 
can  be  realized.  But  if  it  is  to  be,  and  can  be 
destroyed,  what  is  the  method  by  which  this 
great  end  can  be  accomplished?  This  is  the 
crucial  question. 

Most  great  teachers,  both  past  and  present, 
have  sincerely  taught  that  selfishness  might  be 
overcome  by  cultivating  sympathy  and  love 
for  others,  or  by  developing  the  altruistic  senti- 
ments in  oneself  and  others,  toward  all  man- 
kind. And  yet  selfishness  seems  to  be  as 
strongly  entrenched  in  human  hearts  as  ever, 
and  is  working  as  serious  havoc  to-day  in 
human  society  as  formerly.  Think  of  the 
sermons    preached    every    Sunday    from    the 

197 


SPIRIT  OF  THE  NEW  PHILOSOPHY 

countless  pulpits  of  Christendom,  in  which  un- 
selfishness and  sympathy,  kindliness  and  love 
find  so  large  an  expression,  and  have  been 
finding  such  expression  for  centuries,  ever 
since  the  gentle  Nazarene  trod  the  earth;  and 
then  look  about  you  and  remember  the  inde- 
scribable sufferings  of  every  kind  through 
which  Christendom  has  just  passed,  all  of 
which  have  been  occasioned  by  human  selfish- 
ness. What  is  the  trouble?  Why  has  all  our 
preaching  and  teaching  of  love  and  the  altruis- 
tic sentiments  fallen  so  far  short  of  achieving 
their  end? 

It  certainly  suggests  that  there  is  something 
wrong  or  defective  in  our  method  of  combat- 
ing selfishness  in  human  life.  A  moment's 
serious  reflection  will  con\nnce  any  one  that 
selfishness  never  can  be  destroyed  merely  by 
preaching  love  and  sympathy  or  cultivating 
the  altruistic  sentiments,  good  and  necessary 
as  these  things  are,  simply  because  this  method 
does  not  touch  the  roots  of  selfishness  and  will 
never  tear  them  out  of  the  soil  in  which  they 

are  so  firmly  planted. 

198 


THE  SPIRIT  OF  UNITY  IN  SOCIETY 

Love,  sympathy,  altruism,— these  undoubt- 
edly tend  to  diminish  or  soften  the  influences 
of  selfishness,  but  they  never  eradicate  the 
deadly  thing  itself;  and  so  the  root  evil  lives  on 
in  spite  of  all  our  beautiful  teaching  and 
preaching.  This  cure  for  selfishness  is  not 
nearly  radical  enough;  it  only  touches  the  sur- 
face of  the  trouble,  for  it  assumes  the  reality 
and  j^ermanency  of  that  which  is  the  very 
spring  and  source  of  all  the  emotions  and  senti- 
ments of  selfishness,  the  separate  and  in- 
dividual self. 

For,  in  the  last  analysis,  just  what  do  we 
mean  by  selfishness?  In  a  word,  we  mean  the 
self  making  demands  for  itself  as  for  an  in- 
dividual being  who  is  separate  and  apart  from 
all  other  individual  beings.  The  demands  of 
selfishness  may  be  almost  infinite  in  character, 
but,  in  essence,  this  is  what  we  always  mean  by 
the  selfish  spirit.  Now,  if  there  is  in  reality 
such  an  individual  self,  who  does  stand  sepa- 
rate and  distinct  in  essence  from  all  other  in- 
dividuals, then  it  is  a  basic  and  ultimate  reality 
in  itself  and,  of  necessity,  all  the  primary  emo- 

199 


SPIRIT  OF  THE  NEW  PHILOSOPHY 

tions,  sentiments  and  loyalties  will  be,  and 
ought  to  be,  selfish,  egotistic,  jirivate  and  ex- 
clusive 

There  is  no  question  but  that  the  generally 
accepted  view  is  that  the  innermost  love  and 
loyalty  ought  to  be  given  to  oneself, — this 
sejDarate  individual,  this  private  and  exclusive 
self.  We  constantly  affirm  this  in  all  our 
teachings  as  to  self-duty,  self-love,  self-respect 
coming  before  everj^thing  else  in  life.  Hold- 
ing this  view,  as  most  people  do,  the  only  love 
and  sympathy  which  can  be  given  or  ought  to 
be  given  to  others,  in  loyalty  to  the  self,  is  the 
surplusage,  as  it  were,  which  overflows  and 
radiates  from  the  surcharged  realm  of  the  self. 
Love  and  loyalty,  we  say,  must  begin  at  home, 
in  the  heart  of  this  private  and  exclusive  self, 
and  from  thence  spread  outwards,  if  there 
should  chance  to  be  any  excess  left. 

As  a  matter  of  fact,  is  not  this  the  essential 
weakness  of  most  of  our  teaching  of  love  and 
the  altruistic  sentiments?  If  we  do  not  actu- 
ally say  it  in  words,  do  we  not  mean,  neverthe- 
less, and  are  we  not  understood  to  mean,  that 
we  should  so  seek  to  increase  our  fund  of  lov^e 

200 


THE  SriRIT  OF  UNITY  IN  SOCIETY 

and  sympathy  as  to  have  enough  left  over  to 
spread  around  on  others,  without  actually  de- 
priving ourselves  of  the  normal  supply  we  are 
accustomed  to  bestow  on  the  self?  This  view 
and  policy  naturally  leaves  the  real  source  of 
selfishness  unmolested.  While  it  may  tend  to 
diminish  one's  expression  of  selfishness,  it  can 
never  eradicate  it  wholly,  so  long  as  the  private 
and  exclusive  self  still  remains  in  conscious- 
ness. 

The  practical  result,  as  any  one  can  discover 
for  himself,  is  that  there  are  always  fixed  limi- 
tations in  the  expression  of  love  and  sympathy, 
bej^ond  which  even  the  most  unselfish  person 
will  not  go,  since  this  consciousness  of  the  pri- 
vate self  always  holds  one  back  from  giving  to 
the  uttermost.  Besides,  one  can  detect  for 
himself  the  tinge  and  taint  of  selfishness  even 
in  one's  most  unselfish  acts ;  and  true  unselfish- 
ness must  be  totally  unconscious  of  the  pres- 
ence of  any  self  whatever. 

So  we  are  forced  to  admit  that  the  love, 
sympathy,  and  altruism  which  leave  the  pri- 
vate and  exclusive  self  intact,  as  a  distinct  and 
essentially  different  individual,  separate  and 

201 


SPIRIT  OF  THE  NEW  PHILOSOPHY 

isolated  in  its  inner  shrine  and  holy  of  holies, 
will  never  completely  and  utterly  destroy  self- 
ishness as  it  ouffht  to  be  destroyed.  Selfish- 
ness  can  never  be  eradicated  in  this  indirect 
way,  by  attacking  it  from  the  outside  or  in  the 
rear.  The  best  that  can  be  done  in  this  way 
will  be  to  diminish  it;  but  its  vital  and  con- 
tagious source  will  still  remain  in  the  center  of 
one's  being  to  taint  and  poison  all  of  life. 

It  is  to  the  supreme  credit  of  Jesus's  pro- 
found spiritual  insight  that  he  recognized  this 
fact  so  clearly,  though  he  lived  centuries  before 
the  age  of  the  new  psychology.  In  that 
strange  and  paradoxical  statement  of  his,  "If 
any  man  would  save  his  life  (himself) ,  let  him 
lose  it;  and  he  that  loseth  his  life  (himself), 
shall  save  it,"  he  is  dealing  specifically  with  this 
very  subject, — the  complete  destruction  of 
selfishness  that  he  knew  to  be  the  source  of  all 
forms  of  evil.  It  is  one  of  his  most  radical 
and  revolutionary  sayings  and,  rightly  under- 
stood and  honestly  accepted,  would  in  and  of 
itself  completely  transform  human  life.  To 
paraphrase  his  great  words:  If  any  man 
would  find  his  true  Self  that  is  one  with  God 

202 


THE  SPIRIT  OF  UNITY  IN  SOCIETY 

and  with  all  men,  he  must  absolutely  lose,  that 
is,  destroy,  eradicate,  die  to,  wipe  out  of  con- 
sciousness, his  superficial,  unreal  and  selfish 
self.  And  he  who  thus  dies  to  this  separate, 
private  and  selfish  self  (in  his  own  conscious- 
ness), has  indeed  found  or  awakened  to  (in 
his  consciousness)  his  real  and  permanent  and 
divine  Self. 

It  is  not  that  love  and  sympathy  are  wrong 
and  useless  when  expressed  by  the  private  self, 
but  rather,  that  they  fall  short  of  being  as  ef- 
fective as  they  might,  and  they  never  succeed 
in  destroying  the  root  evil  of  selfishness.  The 
mistake  we  make  is  to  think  of  them  as  causes, 
whereas,  from  the  view-point  of  the  private 
self,  they  are  only  weak  and  ineffective  results. 
They  only  become  the  dynamic  causal  forces 
they  are  intended  to  be  in  human  life  when  they 
proceed  directly,  spontaneously  and  uncon- 
sciously from  the  true  Self  that  knows  itself  to 
be  one  with  all,  and  so  gives  itself  freely  and 
utterly  in  love  to  all,  just  because  it  is  its  own 
divine  nature  so  to  do,  and  it  can  do  no  other. 

The  question  naturally  arises:  How  is  it 
possible  to  destroy  this  private  and  exclusive 

203 


SPIRIT  OF  THE  NEW  PHILOSOPHY 

self  that  has  dominated  one  for  years,  perhaps, 
and  been  the  constant  cause  of  all  forms  of 
selfishness  in  one's  life?  The  first  step  in  the 
process  is  to  disprove  completely,  that  is,  to 
one's  entire  satisfaction,  the  existence  of  this 
exclusive  and  separate  self,  to  prove  to  oneself 
that  it  is  only  one,  though  the  greatest  and 
most  deadly,  of  all  the  illusions  that  have  dark- 
ened  men's  minds  and  held  humanity  back  in 
the  path  of  true  progress;  and  thus  to  wipe 
out  utterly  one's  belief  in  this  separate  self. 
This  is  the  great  task  that  is  being  performed 
to-day  by  modern  science  and  philosophy,  and 
that  is  corroborated  by  true  religion  wherever 
it  finds  expression.  And  to  these  sources  one 
must  look  for  the  aid  he  seeks  in  dispelling 
from  his  mind  the  old  false  illusion. 

When  the  mind  of  man  has  once  satisfied 
itself  of  the  falsity  of  this  age-old  belief,  the 
next  step  is  to  turn  resolutely  away  from  every 
suggestion  of  this  illusion  and  concentrate  one's 
thought  constantly  on  the  true  Self  at  the 
center  of  one's  being  that  one  knows  to  be  one 
with  the  true  Self  in  all  others.  It  will  re- 
quire patience  and  persistent  thinking  of  the 

204? 


THE  SPIRIT  OF  UNITY  IN  SOCIETY 

Self  in  this  way,  but  eventually  this  profound- 
est  of  all  truths,  admitted  by  the  mind  only  at 
first,  will  enter  the  domain  of  consciousness 
and  become  an  actual  truth  of  one's  daily  ex- 
perience. This  is  the  law  of  growth  and  of 
true  spiritual  development  which  any  one  can 
test  for  himself.  It  all  depends  upon  how 
earnestly  one  desires  to  lose  his  fictitious  self 
in  order  to  find  his  true  Self  and  thus  experi- 
ence his  spiritual  unity  with  All. 

But  to  return  now  to  the  questions  with 
which  this  chapter  opened:  Is  there  such  a 
thing  as  a  social  ego,  and  if  so,  is  it  possible 
for  society  to  become  conscious  of  its  true  ego? 
The  social  ego  exists  as  yet  only  in  the  ideal 
sense.  Society  is  only  gradually  becoming 
conscious  of  its  real  Self  through  the  gradual 
coming  to  consciousness  in  its  individual  mem- 
bers of  their  true  Selves.  When  all  men  shall 
have  awakened  to  the  knowledge  that  the  Self 
in  each  one  of  them  is  really  One  Self,  then, 
and  not  till  then,  will  society  have  found  it- 
self. 

For  the  disunity,  the  divisions,  the  separa- 
tions,   the    antagonisms   that   vex    society    so 

205 


SPIRIT  OF  THE  NEW  PHILOSOPHY 

sorely  to-day  are  due  primarily  to  the  fact  that 
society,  like  most  of  its  individual  members,  is 
living  its  life  as  yet  on  the  surface,  and  not 
from  the  true  center  within.  Society  is  what 
its  members  are,  no  better  and  no  worse.  With 
our  modern  conception  of  society  as  a  living 
organism,  we  need  not  be  surprised  at  all  the 
strife  and  conflict  that  afflict  the  organism  of 
society;  for  we  reahze  that  its  individual  parts 
and  members  are  strenuously  living  their  sepa- 
rate lives  in  the  spirit  of  self-interest,  utterly 
unconscious  that  they  are  integral  parts  of  the 
living  social  body,  and  that  this  body  is  suf- 
fering constantly  because  its  various  members 
fail  to  work  together  for  the  best  good  of  the 
whole  body. 

Let  a  very  simple  illustration  suffice  to  ex- 
plain the  ultimate  source  of  all  the  evils  of  dis- 
unity in  society.  Here  are  two  children  play- 
ing with  their  toys.  So  long  as  tliey  regard 
their  toys  as  "our  toys,"  to  be  enjoyed  mutu- 
ally together,  as  if  they  were  joint  possessions, 
there  is  nothing  but  peace  and  harmony  in 
their  play.  It  is  only  when  one  cries  out,  "this 
is  my  doll,"  or  "my  train  of  cars,"  or  ''my 

206 


THE  SPIRIT  OF  UNITY  IN  SOCIETY 

woolly  dog,"  that  the  disunity  enters  into  their 
play.  And  this  undue  emphasis  upon  the 
"my"  and  "mine,"  which  begins  in  childhood, 
proceeds  from  the  false  idea  that  my  Self  is  an 
essentially  different  Self  from  the  Self  in  my 
playmate. 

Thus  it  is  in  the  maturer  experiences  of  man- 
hood and  womanhood.  The  continual  empha- 
sis upon  the  "my"  and  "mine," — whether  it  be 
my  money,  or  my  clothes,  or  my  position,  or 
my  privileges,  or  my  business, — is  constantly 
introducing  into  human  relationships  the  dis- 
ruptive principle  of  disunity.  And  this  is 
equally  true  of  a  broken  friendship,  of  a  great 
industrial  strike  or  of  a  war  between  nations. 
True  unit}^  will  only  come  to  have  its  place  in 
society  when  all, — rich  and  poor,  educated  and 
ignorant,  capital  and  labor,  employer  and  em- 
ployee,— have  learned  to  substitute  the  word 
"our"  for  those  divisive  words,  "my"  and 
"mine."  This  time  will  come  when  men  shall 
have  entered  into  the  spiritual  consciousness 
that  the  Self  in  all  individuals  is  actually  One 
Self,  so  that  what  I  do  for  my  true  Self  I  am 
doing  for  all  other  Selves,  and  what  I  do  for 

207 


SPIRIT  OF  THE  NEW  PHILOSOPHY 

others  I  am  doing  for  my  Self.  Real  brother- 
hood, when  it  comes,  will  be  based  on  this  deep 
consciousness. 

We  call  this  the  age  of  the  new  social  con- 
sciousness, but  what  do  we  mean  by  this  fa- 
miliar expression?  We  mean  that  we  are  liv- 
ing in  an  age  that  is  fast  becoming  socialized 
from  top  to  bottom,  a  process  that  the  war 
has  only  tremendously  accelerated.  Our  psy- 
chology, as  we  have  seen,  is  becoming  social- 
ized. Man  does  not  live  his  life  alone  but 
in  relationships,  complex  and  far-reaching. 
There  are  no  isolated  individuals  complete  in 
themselves.  Personality  is  recognized  as  a 
social  product  and  is  impossible  apart  from  so- 
cial relationships. 

Education  is  being  transformed  in  the  same 
way,  both  as  to  its  ideals  and  its  methods. 
And  religion  must  be  socialized  throughout,  or 
it  will  be  left  hopelessly  behind  the  age.  So, 
our  estimate  of  human  character  has  been  so- 
cialized. We  realize  that  both  virtue  and  vice 
are  social  products;  that  no  man  is  solely  re- 
sponsible for  his  own  sins  any  more  than  for 
his  own  goodness.     Bound  together  in  this  liv- 

208 


THE  SrmiT  OF  UNITY  IN  SOCIETY 

ing  organism  of  society,  as  we  all  are  inex- 
tricably, we  are  all  in  some  sense  responsible 
for  whatever  crime  is  committed,  for  whatever 
wrong  is  perpetrated,  for  whatever  injustice 
exists. 

But  if  we  recognize  the  corporate  character 
of  sin  and  wrong,  we  must  equally  recognize 
the  social  character  of  salvation.  The  old  doc- 
trine held  that  all  were  sinners;  some  only  are 
saved;  there  is  oneness  in  sin  but  not  in  salva- 
tion. This  artificial  distinction  is  overcome  by 
the  modern  social  way  of  looking  at  things. 
There  is  unity  and  close  association  in  the  one 
case  as  well  as  in  the  other.  If  one  is  a  social 
product,  the  other  is  also.  No  one  can  be 
saved  alone.  If  there  cannot  be  an  isolated 
personality  or  character,  there  cannot  be  an 
isolated  salvation.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  no  one 
can  be  saved  from  society;  he  must  be  saved 
with  it,  if  at  all.  As  Herbert  Spencer  pro- 
foundly said:  "No  one  can  be  perfectly  moral 
till  all  are  moral;  no  one  can  be  perfectly  free 
till  all  are  free ;  no  one  can  be  perfectly  happy 
till  all  are  happy." 

It  is  this  striking  tendency  towards  a  more 

209 


SPIRIT  OF  THE  NEW  PHILOSOPHY 

complete  socialization  of  all  phases  of  modern 
life  that  reveals  the  development  in  our  age  of 
the  true  social  consciousness.  It  is  from  this 
newly  awakened  consciousness  that  there  is 
rising  the  insistent  demand  for  social  and  eco- 
nomic justice  for  all  classes  and  for  each  in- 
dividual in  society,  even  the  lowest  and  weak- 
est; and  this  demand  for  simple,  fundamental 
justice  proceeds  from  nothing  else  than  the 
true  ego  of  society  that  is  gradually  finding 
itself  through  the  awakening  consciousness  of 
its  individual  members. 

Let  it  be  remembered  that  the  unity  we  seek 
in  society,  like  the  unity  we  seek  elsewhere, 
does  not  imply  sameness  or  uniformity.  It 
does  not  mean  that  we  shall  all  think  alike  on 
all  questions,  or  all  belong  to  the  same  political 
party  and  vote  the  same  ticket,  or  all  hold  the 
same  ideas  for  the  coming  social  order  that  is 
to  supplant  the  old,  or  all  agree  on  the  same 
theoloffv.  Such  a  condition,  even  if  it  were 
possible,  would  be  fatal  to  truth  and  progress ; 
and  such  an  imaginary  society  would  have 
ceased  to  be  a  living  body;  it  could  only  be  a 
dead  and  useless  thing. 

210 


THE  SPIRIT  OF  UNITY  IN  SOCIETY 

The  unity  we  seek  is  ever  and  always  a 
spiritual  thing,  and  therefore  a  thing  of  life 
and  power.  It  is  the  deep  sure  consciousness 
that  we  are  indeed  all  members  one  of  another ; 
that  what  hurts  one,  hurts  all,  and  what  helps 
one,  helps  all;  that  we  must  either  all  progress 
together,  or  else  all  go  backwards  together; 
that  we  are  all, — rich  and  poor,  high  and  low, 
wise  and  ignorant,  capital  and  labor,  employer 
and  employee, — we  are  all  bound  up  inextric- 
ably in  this  social  organism  that  needs  us  all 
and  depends  upon  us  all,  and  that  can  never 
realize  its  highest  and  best  unless  each  one  of 
us,  its  members,  is  living  at  his  highest  and 
best. 

We  find  this  spiritual  unity  realized  in  its 
fulness  in  the  ideal  family,  the  true  unit  of 
society.  There  may  and  do  exist  many  dif- 
ferences between  the  various  members  of  the 
household ;  but  in  spite  of  everj'^  difference,  fa- 
ther and  mother,  brothers  and  sisters  are  all 
united  in  love  and  loyalty  to  the  largest  pros- 
perity and  highest  good  of  the  family  as  a 
whole.  There  are  also  many  ideal  communi- 
ties in  which  the  community  spirit  has  fostered 

211 


SPIRIT  OF  THE  NEW  PHILOSOPHY 

and  developed  to  a  high  degree  this  same  sort 
of  unity  between  its  various  and  different 
members.  Why  should  it  not  be  possible  to 
further  extend  this  spirit  so  as  to  include  all  of 
society,  which  is  made  up  of  such  families  and 
contains  manv  such  communities  ?  We  believe 
that  it  is  possible,  and  more,  that  it  is  being 
gradually  done  to-day  as  the  social  conscious- 
ness steadily  widens  and  deepens,  and  as  men 
and  women  everywhere  awaken  to  the  sense  of 
their  true  oneness  with  all  who  live  and  aspire. 

The  unity  we  see  in  the  family  or  commun- 
ity exists  simply  because  the  individuals  con- 
cerned have  ceased  to  be  governed  primarily 
by  motives  of  self-interest;  they  have  sub- 
ordinated themselves  as  individuals  to  the  good 
of  the  family  or  community ;  they  have  learned 
to  diminish,  at  least,  their  own  selfishness,  even 
if  they  have  not  succeeded  in  wholly  destroy- 
ing it. 

The  same  thing  must  come  to  take  place  in 
the  larger  relationships  of  society  if  any  real 
social  unity  is  ever  to  exist.  No  drastic  legis- 
lation merely  will  suffice,  no  fresh  organiza- 
tions will  meet  the  need,  no  new  economic  sys- 

212 


THE  SPIRIT  OF  UNITY  IN  SOCIETY 

tern  or  changed  industrial  order,  in  and  of 
themselves,  will  create  the  unity  desired.  We 
recognize  that  the  mere  transfer  of  social  con- 
trol from  a  self-seeking  few  to  a  self-seeking 
many,  would  in  itself  be  of  no  real  benefit  to 
the  world,  and  would  not  banish  the  tragic  dis- 
unity that  now  vexes  society. 

It  is  a  new  spirit  that  is  needed,  even  before 
new  forms  of  organization.  And  unless  this 
new  spirit  precedes  the  new  forms,  and  infuses 
and  inspires  them  with  a  new  consciousness  of 
the  spiritual  unity  that  underlies  all  our  social 
life,  despite  every  difference,  we  need  not  ex- 
pect to  see  conditions  changed  for  the  better. 

To  all  thoughtful  minds  it  must  be  clear  that 
this  is  no  academic  question  that  we  have  been 
discussing.  The  need  is  imperative  and  im- 
mediate. There  is  no  time  to  be  lost.  In 
some  way  we  must  achieve  a  new  and  deeper 
social  unity  in  this  country  and  in  all  lands, 
or  the  future  is  dark  indeed  with  menace  for 
those  things  that  are  indeed  most  worth  while 
in  the  life  of  mankind.  Mighty  forces  have 
been  loosed  by  the  war,  both  good  and  evil.  It 
is  for  us  to  guide  these  forces  into  the  right 

213 


SPIRIT  OF  THE  NEW  PHILOSOPHY 

channels  that  shall  lead  to  better  things  for 
humanity. 

But  whence  will  the  needed  guidance  come, 
if  as  individuals  we  are  so  wrapped  up  in  our 
own  concerns,  our  private  plans  and  personal 
ambitions,  so  content  to  continue  to  be  merely 
our  private,  separate,  exclusive  selves,  so  blind 
to  our  essential  unity  with  all  other  members 
in  society,  so  utterly  oblivious  to  our  vital  place 
and  function  in  the  living  body  of  society, 
whose  condition  is  just  now  so  extremely  criti- 
cal, that  we  shall  miss  the  greatest  of  all  ex- 
periences possible  to  man, — that  of  achieving 
the  consciousness  of  our  true  oneness  with  the 
common  life  about  us? 


214 


CHAPTER  X 

UNITY    IN    RELIGION 

"And  ye  shall  know  the  truth  and  the  truth  shall  make  you 
free.  .  .  . 

"He  that  hath  seen  me,  hath  seen  the  Father,"  for  "I  and 
the  Father  are  One."  .  .  .  "In  that  day  ye  shall  know  that  I 
am  in  my  Father,  and  ye  in  me,  and  I  in  you."  .  .  .  "Whatso- 
ever ye  do  to  the  least  of  these  my  little  ones,  ye  do  it  also 
unto  me."  .  .  .  "That  they  may  be  one,  even  as  Thou,  Father, 
art  in  me  and  I  in  Thee,  may  they  also  be  in  us."  ...  "I  in 
them,  and  Thou  in  me,  that  they  may  be  perfected  into 
One."  .  .  . — Jesus. 

IT  is  in  our  modern  study  of  Religion  that 
we  have  been  forced  to  reaHze,  in  a  still 
deeper  sense,  the  profoundly  essential  unity  of 
all  mankind.  Religion  is  as  old  as  the  human 
race,  and  in  its  fundamental  purpose  should 
have  proved  to  be  the  great  unifying  principle 
in  the  life  of  men.  The  word  itself,  coming 
from  "religio,"  means,  etymologically,  "a  bind- 
ing together."  But  the  tragedy  of  every 
great  religion  from  the  beginning  lies  in  this: 

215 


SPIRIT  OF  THE  NEW  PHILOSOPHY 

that  what  began  as  a  universal  or  purely 
spiritual  movement  has,  in  a  short  time,  de- 
generated into  a  sect;  and  while  true  religion 
is  always  unifying  and  all-inclusive,  sectarian 
religion  is  always  divisive  and  exclusive. 

To  this,  perhaps,  inevitable  tendency  in  the 
development  of  religions,  Christianity  has  been 
no  exception.  As  early  as  Paul's  own  times 
we  find  this  tendency  at  work,  as  we  discover 
him  upbraiding  the  early  disciples  for  claiming 
"I  am  of  Paul,"  or  "I  am  of  Apollos,"  or  "I 
am  of  Cephas."  From  that  time  down  to  the 
present,  this  divisive  influence  has  been  in  evi- 
dence until  to-day  when  we  are  informed  that 
in  this  country  alone  there  are  180  odd 
Christian  sects,  all  basing  their  faith  on  the 
same  Bible,  professing  to  believe  in  the  same 
God,  accepting  as  Saviour  or  Master  the  same 
Christ  and  looking  forward  to  the  same 
Heaven  in  the  future. 

It  is  clear  to-day  as  it  never  has  been  before 
that  it  is  due  to  its  sectarianism  that  Christian- 
ity has  lost  its  universal  character,  and  failed 
thus  far  of  becoming  the  world-power  that  it 
might  become,  and  that  Jesus  believed  it  surely 

216 


UNITY  IN  RELIGION 

would  become.  For  centuries  the  Christian 
world  has  believed  and  taught  that  God  made 
the  Jews  the  peculiar  channel  of  His  revela- 
tion of  Himself.  The  Egyptians,  the  Phoe- 
nicians, the  Greeks,  the  Romans,  the  Chinese, 
the  people  of  India, — ^all  these  worked  out  a 
purely  human  destiny  in  a  purely  human  way. 
They  had  no  inspiration  from  the  Divine 
Spirit,  and  their  life  expressed  no  revelation  of 
the  Divine  Nature. 

The  history  of  the  Jews,  therefore,  has  been 
believed  to  be  sacred  history,  while  the  history 
of  all  other  peoples  has  been  regarded  as 
purely  secular,  or  profane  history.  Think  of 
what  this  view  involves.  It  is  as  if  one  should 
attempt  to  discriminate  between  the  children 
of  the  same  family,  and  declare  that  one  son 
bore  the  image  of  his  father,  reflected  his  char- 
acter, and  was  the  recipient  of  his  love,  while 
all  the  other  children,  regardless  of  their  na- 
tures or  characters,  were  aliens  and  strangers, 
absolutely  shut  off  from  any  participation  in 
the  nature  or  the  love  which  was  a  common  in- 
heritance. 

Multitudes  of  Christians  still  believe  in  a 

217 


SPIRIT  OF  THE  NEW  PHILOSOPHY 

little  current  of  divine  influence  flowing 
through  a  vast  sea  of  cori*uption,  in  a  chosen 
people  saved,  arbitrarily,  out  of  a  vast  host  of 
peoples  disinherited  and  rejected  by  God. 
But  to  a  truly  religious  nature,  such  a  behef 
is  to-day  simply  incredible.  This  view  has 
made  of  the  universal  and  spiritual  movement 
inaugurated  by  Jesus,  a  mere  sect  among  other 
sects.  It  is  worse  than  a  partial  view;  it  is 
the  worst  kind  of  atheism,  for  it  sets  about  the 
Divine  Love  the  narrow  limits  of  the  insight, 
intelligence  and  capacity  which  restrict  human 
affection,  and  is  absolutely  inconsistent  with 
the  conception  of  a  Universal  Father. 

Nothing  has  so  broadened  our  ideas  of  Re- 
ligion and  forced  us  to  see  that  while  "religions 
are  many,  Religion  is  always  one,"  as  has  the 
discovery  of  the  Sacred  Books  of  the  East. 
In  1754  a  Frenchman  came  across  an  old  man- 
uscript in  the  Royal  Library  of  Paris,  which 
proved  to  be  a  portion  of  the  "Avesta."  This 
led  to  further  discoveries,  and  to-day  we  have 
183  manuscripts  representing  the  sacred  books 
of  the  Parsees  or  Zoroastrians.  In  1787  the 
"Rig- Veda,"  part  of  the  oldest  Bible  in  the 

218 


UNITY  IN  RELIGION 

world,  was  discovered  in  India.  This,  with 
subsequent  discoveries,  has  given  to  us  a  total 
of  sacred  Hindu  literature  that  is  over  four 
times  the  size  of  the  Christian  Bible.  A  httle 
later  the  "Pitakas,"  the  sacred  literature  of  the 
Buddhists,  were  discovered,  which  are  eight 
times  the  size  of  our  New  Testament. 

From  these  discoveries  of  the  sacred  litera- 
tures of  the  Orient,  which  have  now  been  trans- 
lated into  some  fifty  volumes,  accessible  to  all 
who  care  to  read  them,  has  come  the  modern 
"Science  of  Comparative  Rehgion."  This 
science  has  proved,  beyond  the  shadow  of  a 
doubt,  that  all  such  moral  sentiments  as  jus- 
tice, temperance,  truthfulness,  patience,  love, 
mercy, — far  from  being  the  peculiar  property 
of  any  one  religion,  were  found  inculcated  in 
the  Bibles  of  all  religions.  It  has  also  found 
that  the  great  spiritual  sentiments  out  of  which 
all  religions  have  sprung, — such  as  awe,  rever- 
ence, wonder,  aspiration,  worship,  the  capacity 
for  faith,  hope  and  love,  have  found  rich  ex- 
pression in  all  the  varied  systems  of  faith. 

It  has  also  proved  that  the  Ten  Command- 
ments of  the  Old  Testament  and  the  Golden 

219 


SPIRIT  OF  THE  NEW  PHILOSOPHY 

Rule  of  the  New  Testament,  are  more  or  less, 
and  in  slightly  varying  forms,  to  be  found  in 
these  other  sacred  scriptures.  Some  one  at  a 
great  meeting  in  Boston  once  declared  that 
certain  passages  which  he  quoted  could  not 
be  paralleled  anywhere  outside  our  Bible. 
Ralph  Waldo  Emerson,  who  was  present,  rose 
and  in  that  serene,  dignified  manner  so  char- 
acteristic of  him,  said:  "The  gentleman's  re- 
mark only  proves  how  narrowly  he  has  read." 

Let  us  illustrate  how  the  moral  and  religious 
sentiment  of  Catholicity  has  found  expression 
in  these  different  Bibles  of  the  race. 

The  Hindu  Bible:  "Altar  flowers  are  of 
many  species,  but  all  worship  is  one.  Systems 
of  Faith  differ,  but  God  is  one.  The  object 
of  all  religions  is  alike;  all  seek  the  object  of 
their  love,  and  all  the  world  is  love's  dwelling 
place." 

The  Buddhist  Bible:  "The  root  of  religion 
is  to  reverence  one's  own  faith,  and  never  to 
revile  the  faith  of  others.  My  doctrine  makes 
no  distinction  between  high  and  low,  rich  and 
poor.  It  is  like  the  sky;  it  has  room  for  all 
and,  like  water,  it  washes  all  alike." 

220 


UNITY  IN  RELIGION 

The  Zoroastrian  Bible:  "Have  the  rehg- 
ions  of  mankind  no  common  ground?  Is  there 
not  everywhere  the  same  enrapturing  beauty? 
Broad  indeed  is  the  carpet  which  God  has 
spread,  and  many  are  the  colors  which  He  has 
given  it.  Whatever  road  I  take  joins  the 
highway  that  leads  to  Thee." 

The  Chinese  Bible:  "Religions  are  many 
and  different,  but  reason  is  one.  Humanity 
is  the  heart  of  man,  and  justice  is  the  path  of 
man.  The  broad-minded  see  the  truth  in  dif- 
ferent religions,  the  narrow-minded  see  only 
the  differences." 

The  Jewish  Scriptures:  "Wisdom  in  all 
ages  entering  into  holy  souls  maketh  them 
friends  of  God  and  the  Prophets.  Behold 
how  good  and  pleasant  a  thing  it  is  for  brethren 
to  dwell  together  in  unity." 

The  Christian  Scriptures:  "Are  we  not  all 
children  of  one  Father?  Hath  not  one  God 
created  us?  .  .  .  Who  hath  made  of  one,  all 
nations  of  men  to  dwell  on  the  face  of  the 
earth." 

Or,  let  us  compare  the  seven  different  ver- 
sions, from  these  same  seven  Bibles,  of  the 

221 


SPIRIT  OF  THE  NEW  PHILOSOPHY 

Golden  Rule,  which  has  been  regarded  as  the 
climax  of  the  ethical  ideal  of  Christian  teach- 
ing. 

The  Hindu:  "The  true  rule  is  to  guard 
and  do  by  the  things  of  others  as  they  do  by 
their  own." 

The  Buddhist:  "One  should  seek  for  others 
the  happiness  one  desires  for  oneself." 

The  Zoroastrian:  "Do  as  you  would  be 
done  by." 

The  Chinese:  "What  you  do  not  wish  done 
to  yourself,  do  not  unto  others." 

The  Mohammedan :  "Let  none  of  you  treat 
your  brother  in  a  way  he  himself  would  dishke 
to  be  treated." 

The  Jewish:  "Whatever  you  do  not  wish 
your  neighbor  to  do  to  you,  do  not  unto  him." 

The  Christian:  "All  things  whatsoever  ye 
would  that  men  should  do  unto  you,  do  ye  even 
so  unto  them." 

As  Alfred  W.  Martin  has  truly  said:  "If 
we  listen  to  a  Hindu  chant,  we  shall  think  we 
have  lighted  upon  some  missing  psalm  of  the 
Old  Testament,  so  alike  are  they  in  spiritual 
content.     Hear  the   Parsee  as  he  offers  his 

222 


UNITY  IN  RELIGION 

prayer  for  purity,  and  how  slight  a  change  in 
the  language  should  we  have  to  make  in  order 
that  it  should  suit  our  spiritual  need.  We  may 
not  believe  in  'Nirvana,'  but  we  all  must  walk 
*the  noble  eight-fold  path'  of  Gautama,  the 
Buddha,  if  complete  character  is  to  be  ours. 
Open  the  'Koran'  of  the  INIohammedans,  the 
'Analects'  of  the  Confucians,  the  'Kings'  of  the 
Chinese  before  Confucius,  and  in  each  case  we 
shall  find  ourselves  face  to  face  with  a  religion 
that  speaks  to  us  in  accents  strong,  beautiful 
and  oftentimes  sublime." 

One  of  the  greatest  concrete  results  of  the 
translation  of  these  sacred  books  of  the  Orient, 
was  the  "World's  Parliament  of  Religions," 
held  in  Chicago  in  1893.  Never  since  the 
world  began  was  any  such  general  meeting  of 
representatives  of  all  the  World's  Faiths  on 
the  same  platform,  even  deemed  possible. 
The  Parliament  was  conceived  and  carried  out 
by  a  Presbyterian  minister  of  Chicago,  the 
Reverend  John  Henry  Barrows.  The  clos- 
ing address  was  by  a  Swedenborgian,  the  final 
prayer  by  a  Jewish  Rabbi,  and  the  benediction 
by  a  Roman  Catholic  Bishop, 

223 


SPIRIT  OF  THE  NEW  PHILOSOPHY 

At  the  opening  session  there  walked  out  on 
the  platform,  Roman  Catholic  and  Protestant, 
Greek  and  Jew,  Confucian  and  Buddhist, 
Mohammedan  and  Parsee,  Baptist  missionary 
and  Hindu  monk, — one  hundred  and  twenty- 
eight  couples, — all  marching  in  one  grand 
triumphal  procession  of  human  brotherhood. 

The  effect  of  the  Parliament  was  singularly 
profound  upon  all  who  attended  any  of  the 
meetings.  To  the  non-Christian,  it  meant  a 
better  and  truer  conception  of  Christianity, 
that  had  sent  them  the  missionary  and  the 
Bible,  but  had  also  brought  them  the  battle- 
ship, opium  and  rum.  The  effect  on  the 
Christian  delegates  was  still  more  striking. 
The  spiritual  conceit  that  had  formerly  prayed : 
"O  Lord,  we  thank  Thee  that  we  are  not  as 
these  pagan  idolators,"  was  removed  forever 
from  the  hearts  of  all  who  watched  and  Hs- 
tened.  They  discerned  heights  of  spirituahty 
reached  by  these  "foreigners,"  of  which  most 
of  them  had  never  dreamed.  They  heard 
prayers  to  the  "Father  in  Heaven"  of  which 
they  had  formerly  thought  these  "heathen"  ut- 
terly incapable.     They  found  among  all  these 

224 


UNITY  IN  RELIGION 

various  delegates  from  different  and  oj^posing 
religions,  the  same  expression  of  worship,  of 
spiritual  development,  of  ethical  teachings  and 
religious  ideals  that  exist,  under  different 
forms,  in  Christianity;  and  their  hearts  cried 
out  irresistibly  "Are  we  not  indeed  all  children 
of  one  Father?" 

Never  again,  since  the  disclosures  of  the 
Science  of  Comparative  Religion,  can  any  in- 
telligent person  make  the  old  classification  of 
religions,  according  to  which  Christianity  is  put 
by  itself  in  one  class  as  the  only  one,  true,  di- 
vine rehgion,  while  all  the  other  religions  of 
the  world  are  grouped  in  another  class  and 
labeled  "pagan,"  or  "heathen,"  or  "false"  re- 
ligions; for  the  elements  common  to  all  Faiths 
are  clearly  seen  to  be  too  numerous  and  too 
fundamental  to  allow  of  any  such  superficial 
and  ignorant  distinctions. 

The  simple  conclusion  to  which  we  are  forced 
to-day  is,  that  there  has  never  been  but  one 
true  religion  in  the  world,  and  that  is  the  uni- 
versal, spiritual  and  ethical  religion  as  voiced 
in  its  simplicity  and  clearness  by  Jesus,  but  as 
also  voiced,  more  or  less  clearly,  by  all  the 

225 


SPIRIT  OF  THE  NEW  PHILOSOPHY 

great  founders  and  leaders  of  religion.  All 
religions,  of  whatever  name,  are  but  the  more 
or  less  imperfect  representations  of  this  one, 
true  religion. 

All  religion,  in  whatever  age  or  country,  is 
in  its  essential  truth,  good  and  not  evil.  It 
has  always  sprung  from  the  same  vital  source, 
the  same  religious  impulse  in  man.  It  has  al- 
ways had  the  same  great  goal, — the  knowledge 
of  God,  under  whatever  name  He  has  been 
worshiped.  It  has  always  pointed  out  more 
or  less  clearly  the  true  pathway  of  spiritual  de- 
velopment. It  has  been  at  the  root  of  all 
morality  that  ever  made  society  possible,  and 
has  been  the  uplifting  force  of  whatever  prog- 
ress the  world  or  any  part  of  the  world  has 
ever  made.  Held  in  connection  with  whatever 
amount  of  error  or  falsehood  you  like,  it  is 
nevertheless  the  beginning  of  all  truth.  Bur- 
dened with  whatever  superstitions  or  cruelty 
or  lust  or  hate  the  religion  of  a  people  may  be, 
those  people  are  always  better  off  than  they 
would  be  without  any  religion. 

The  one  obstacle  that  prevents  so  many  good 
people  from  seeing  this,  is  the  almost  ineradica- 
ble 


UNITY  IN  RELIGION 

ble  tendency  to  ascribe  to  the  religious  beliefs 
of  those  we  call  heathen,  all  the  abuses  we  find 
in  heathen  society.  No  religion,  Christianity 
any  more  than  others,  can  stand  that  test. 
Apply  it  fairly  and  you  must  make  a  clean 
sweep  of  every  religion.  On  that  basis,  all  the 
wrongs  and  injustices,  the  greed  and  lust,  the 
selfishness  and  cruel  warfare  of  Christian  na- 
tions, are  the  results  of  Christian  beliefs.  All 
the  divine  ideals  which  Jesus  gave  the  world 
would  go  by  the  board.  Not  many  of  us  would 
be  willing  to  admit  such  a  claim. 

The  impartial  student  of  the  working  of  be- 
liefs on  the  human  mind  cannot  help  seeing 
that  the  gigantic  evils  of  society,  which  exist  in 
Christendom  and  heathendom  alike,  are  due 
solely  to  the  selfishness  in  human  nature, 
against  which  religion,  whatever  may  be  its 
form,  is  always,  in  a  degree  which  is  the  real 
test  of  its  value,  a  sincere  and  solemn  protest. 

This  is  not  to  claim  that  all  forms  of  religion 
are  equally  true  or  equally  good.  The  purely 
ethical  and  spiritual  religion  of  Jesus,  since  it 
is  the  youngest  of  all  the  great  World  Faiths, 
with  the  single  exception  of  JNIohammedism, 

227 


SPIRIT  OF  THE  NEW  PHILOSOPHY 

appeals  to  us  of  this  western  world,  and 
rightly,  as  being  the  best  and  highest  form  of 
religion  that  the  world  has  yet  known;  but 
this  is  not  to  deny  the  essential  unity  of  all  re- 
ligions and  the  insistent  demand  for  a  real  and 
intelligent  sympathy  between  all  Faiths. 

Our  foremost  missionaries  are  telling  us  to- 
day that  the  attitude  of  Christianity  toward 
non-Christian  systems  should  not  be  one  of 
condemnation,  but  of  insight  and  of  sympa- 
thetic interpretation,  that  while  we  have  much 
to  teach  them,  they  also  have  much  to  teach  us. 
One  cannot  listen  to  these  prophetic  messages 
on  the  one  hand,  or  note  the  financial  straits 
into  which  the  great  Foreign  Missionary  So- 
cieties are  constantly  falling,  without  realizing 
that  everything  is  calling  loudly  to-day  for  a 
radical  change  of  attitude  and  of  methods  on 
the  part  of  Christendom  toward  non-Christian 
peoples. 

The  fact  is,  and  the  war  has  made  it  day- 
light plain,  our  old  denominational  distinctions 
have  for  the  most  part  become  absurd  an- 
achronisms. They  rest  on  certain  hopeless 
arguments  which  can  never  be  settled  decisively 

228 


UNITY  IN  RELIGION 

one  way  or  another.  Oui*  numerous  divisions 
are  strangling  us.  Our  denominational  names 
no  longer  define.  Our  labels  have  become 
libels.  The  most  hopeful  sign,  amid  all  the 
theological  and  ecclesiastical  disunity  that  so 
sorely  afflicts,  and  so  constantly  saps  the  real 
power  of  Christianity  to-day,  is  the  new  move- 
ment toward  Christian  unity.  But  still,  our 
attitude  toward  the  non-Christian  world  is  stiff 
and  unsympathetic  in  the  extreme.  Christian 
unity  is  not  the  end,  but  only  a  stepping-stone 
to  a  still  broader  religious  unity  that  shall  em- 
brace all  mankind  with  all  their  various  faiths. 
As  we  have  already  pointed  out,  the  race 
flows  through  us.  Humanity  is  the  great 
Drama  in  which  we,  as  individuals  or  nations, 
are  the  incidents.  In  so  far  as  we  are  merely 
individuals,  as  we  seek  to  follow  merely  indi- 
vidual ends,  we  are  accidental,  disconnected, 
without  significance,  the  sport  of  chance.  In 
so  far  as  we  realize  ourselves  to  be  experiments 
of  the  species  for  the  sake  of  the  species,  in 
just  so  far  do  we  escape  from  the  accidental 
and  chaotic.  We  all  live  our  lives  in  a  Greater 
Life.     Om'  personal  experiences  are  episodes 

229 


SPIRIT  OF  THE  NEW  PHILOSOPHY 

in  an  Experience  greater  than  ourselves. 
Even  the  particular  consciousness  in  us  wells 
up  from  the  deeps  of  the  Universal  Conscious- 
ness upon  whose  bosom  we  rest  hke  wavelets 
on  the  sea.  This  does  not  make  for  the  sup- 
pression of  one's  individual  differences,  but  it 
does  make  for  their  correlation.  We  must  get 
everything  possible  out  of  ourselves  for  the 
very  reason  that  we  do  not  stand  separate  and 
alone.  Our  separate  Selves  are  our  charges, 
our  talents  of  which  we  must  make  the  very 
utmost;  but  our  true  significance  lies  in  the 
fact  that  we  are  all  parts  of  a  universal  and 
immortal  development. 

The  same  principle  holds  true  of  religions. 
Any  religion  that  keeps  itself  in  its  external 
forms  separate  and  apart  and  exclusive,  that 
refuses  to  merge  itself  in  the  deeper  stream  of 
universal  rehgion,  is  accidental  and  doomed  to 
extinction.  Only  as  the  great  extant  rehgions 
are  willing  to  die  a  sectarian  death,  can  they 
hope  to  survive  in  spiritual  reality. 

The  religions  in  the  past  have  been  the 
"great  dividers,"  but  religion  in  its  true  es- 
sence is,  in  fact,  the  only  adequate  and  per- 

230 


UNITY  IN  RELIGION 

manent  uniting  power  in  human  life.  All 
Christian  churches  believe  it  is  their  duty  to 
"preach  the  Gospel  to  every  creature."  But 
what  is  the  real  Gospel  of  Jesus?  All  too- 
often  it  has  been  construed  in  terms  of  some 
particular  theology  or  ritual,  and  always  in 
terms  of  sectarianism,  for  the  purpose  of  build- 
ing up  some  particular  one  of  the  many 
branches  of  the  Christian  Church. 

How  foreign  all  this  is  to  the  spirit  of  Jesus ! 
He  taught  that  God  is  the  All-Father,  with 
whom  are  no  distinctions  of  race  or  color  or 
creed,  and  that  therefore  all  men,  irrespective 
of  every  accidental  difference,  are  truly  broth- 
ers. He  taught  that  God's  true  dwelling- 
place  was  in  every  individual  born  into  the 
world,  and  that  salvation  consisted  in  coming 
into  conscious  oneness  with  God  and  with  one's 
fellows  everywhere.  The  result  of  this  con- 
scious unity  with  the  Whole  would  be,  he  said, 
love  to  God  and  love  to  man,  which  was  his 
summing  up  of  both  the  law  and  the  prophets. 

If  we  believe  the  author  of  the  Fourth  Gos- 
pel, the  Christ,  or  the  Divine  life  that  dwelt  in 
Jesus  in  such  conscious  fulness,  is  "the  light 

231 


SPIRIT  OF  THE  NEW  PHILOSOPHY 

that  lighteth  every  man  coming  into  the 
world."  Then,  the  Christ  was  in  Laotzse,  in 
Confucius,  in  Zoroaster,  in  Buddha,  in  Plato, 
in  Marcus  Aurelius  and  in  all  the  great  souls 
of  the  race;  and,  in  some  degree,  in  every  in- 
dividual who  has  ever  existed  or  who  ever  will 
exist.  If  this  be  true,  then  to  preach  the  real 
Gospel  of  Jesus  does  not  mean  to  preach  our 
theological  or  ritualistic  or  ecclesiastical  differ- 
ences, but  rather,  to  proclaim  man's  spiritual 
unity  in  God,  who  in-dwells  all  men,  and  there- 
fore, man's  practical  brotherhood  here  on 
earth;  and  to  help  men  everywhere  to  realize 
that  unity  and  live  their  hves  in  the  spirit  of 
true  brotherliness. 

The  religious  unity,  however,  toward  which 
the  forward-looking  men  and  women  in  all  the 
churches  have  to-day  set  their  faces  will  not  be 
a  unity  of  sameness  or  uniformity.  It  will  not 
find  expression  in  one  big  church  only,  or 
through  one  common  form  of  worship,  or  in 
one  common  creed,  however  simple.  So  long 
as  men  differ  in  temperament  as  they  always 
will,  they  will  prefer  and  choose  different 
forms  of  worship.     So  long  as  they  differ  in 

232 


UNITY  IN  RELIGION 

mind,  in  education,  in  experience,  they  will  ap- 
proach Truth  from  different  view-points  and 
interpret  their  experiences  of  truth  in  different 
terms.  It  would  mean  a  tragic  loss  to  relig- 
ion, to  truth,  to  life  itself,  if  it  should  ever  be 
possible  to  force  all  men  to  feel  and  think  and 
act  alike  in  matters  of  religion.  Nothing 
could  be  farther  than  this  from  our  conception 
of  religious  unity. 

There  is  nothing  that  is  so  peculiarly  one's 
own  as  his  religion,  because  nothing  proceeds 
so  directly  from  his  deepest  divinest  Self. 
But  when  one's  religion  is  thus  real,  a  first- 
hand experience  within  one's  Self,  for  that 
very  reason  it  becomes  a  universal  thing,  and 
instead  of  separating  one  from  his  fellows  in 
some  exclusive  sect  or  church,  it  binds  him  to 
all  others  of  whatever  creed  or  sect  they  may 
be.  For  such  an  one  has  found  the  deep  sub- 
stratum of  religion,  beneath  all  theological  or 
ecclesiastical  differences  whatsoever,  where 
true  religious  unity  alone  abides. 

Let  us  repeat  it.  We  need  never  expect  to 
find  religious  unity  in  our  theology  or  in  our 
rituals  or  in  our  ecclesiasticism,  for  the  simple 

233 


SPIRIT  OF  THE  NEW  PHILOSOPHY 

reason  that  unity  does  not  belong  to  these 
realms.  These  things  constitute  the  externals 
of  religion,  not  its  inner  life.  And  unity, 
which  is  not  an  intellectual  or  formal,  but  a 
spiritual  thing,  belongs  ever  and  always  to  that 
which  lies  deepest  within.  It  is  this  profound 
fact  that  all  Commissions  on  Religious  Unity 
must  take  into  account,  or  their  sincere  efforts 
wiU  be  all  unavailing. 

We  shall  find  that  true  unity  in  religion  only 
when  we  begin  to  realize  that  there  is  a  some- 
thing in  religion,  beyond  theology  or  any  form 
of  ecclesiasticism,  and  that  is,  a  living  spiritual 
consciousness  welling  up  in  man's  being. 
When  that  time  comes  we  will  recognize  that 
the  only  authoritative  creed  is  the  creed  every 
man  makes  for  himself,  and  that  he  keeps  con- 
stantly open  to  revision  with  the  coming  of 
every  fresh  ray  of  new  light;  the  only  com- 
pelling form  of  worship  will  be  that  to  which 
a  man's  whole  being  responds  instinctively  and 
spontaneously;  and  the  only  church  to  which 
he  will  give  his  allegiance  will  be  the  church  to 
whose  spiritual  life  and  message  he  is  drawn 
irresistibly.     For  all  such  spiritually  awakened 

234 


UNITY  IN  RELIGION 

men  and  women  there  will  be  the  consciousness 
of  true  spiritual  unity  with  all  other  religious 
individuals  tlie  whole  world  round,  regardless 
of  all  theological  or  other  differences  that  maj'' 
seem  to  divide  on  the  surface  of  religion;  for 
these  will  have  entered  into  the  profound  truth 
that  while  religions  are  many,  Religion  is  one. 
The  world  has  never  before  been  so  ready  or 
so  eager  for  this  real  message  of  religion  as 
to-day.  In  all  lands,  as  we  have  seen,  the  con- 
viction is  growing  apace  that  the  next  step  for- 
ward in  the  progress  of  humanity  must  be  to- 
ward a  higher  Internationalism,  in  which  all 
distinctions  of  separate  race  and  nation  must 
be  subordinated  to  a  World-life,  a  universal 
humanity.  To  achieve  this  is  clearly  the  high 
task  of  the  twentieth  century.  President 
Woodrow  Wilson,  in  a  recent  address,  made 
the  significant  statement  that  "wars  would 
never  have  an  ending  until  men  ceased  to  hate 
one  another,  ceased  to  be  jealous  of  one  an- 
other, and  achieved  that  feeling  of  reality  in 
the  brotherhood  of  mankind  which  is  the  only 
bond  that  can  make  us  think  justly  of  one  an- 
other, and  act  righteously  before  God." 

235 


SPIRIT  OF  THE  NEW  PHILOSOPHY 

What  an  opportunity,  then,  is  presented  to- 
day for  Religion  to  reahze  at  last  its  true  mis- 
sion in  the  world  and,  minimizing  all  differ- 
ences, begin  to  magnify  those  things  common 
to  all  religions.  If  Christianity,  catching  the 
great  vision  of  its  Founder,  and  rising  to  his 
plane  of  a  spiritual  and  universal  religion, 
were  willing  literally  to  die  to  all  its  petty 
sectarianisms,  its  outgrown  theologies,  its  un- 
democratic ecclesiasticism,  and  begin  to  pro- 
claim the  Unity  of  the  race,  the  Universal 
Fatherhood  of  God,  and  the  real  Brotherhood 
of  all  Humanity,  it  would  indeed  become  the 
mighty  instrument  in  laying  the  foundations 
sure  and  deep  for  that  new  World-life,  in  which 
we  should  see  realized  at  last  the  dream  of  the 
ages,  "the  parHament  of  man,  the  Federation 
of  the  world." 

Is  this  only  a  vain  ideal?  Let  us  remember 
that  it  has  ever  been  the  peculiar  mission  of  re- 
ligion to  furnish  those  illuminating  and  inspir- 
ing ambitions  which  have  been  as  "songs  in  the 
night"  of  humanity's  upward  march.  Relig- 
ion, once  purified  and  made  a  vital  and  spirit- 
ual power,  can  indeed  become  the  mightiest  of 

236 


UNITY  IN  RELIGION 

forces  in  bringing  in  the  new  World-conscious- 
ness that  must  be  attained,  because  reUgion 
has  always  enlisted  imagination,  faith  and  dar- 
ing courage  in  its  service. 

But  religious  unity  will  never  come  about  by 
any  mechanical  process.  It  cannot  be  manu- 
factured by  Commissions  or  produced  by  reso- 
lutions. The  lofty  ideals  of  religion  which 
Jesus  announced  will  onl}^  be  realized  as  men 
and  women  everywhere  come  to  feel  that  spirit- 
ual freedom  means  more  than  any  slavish  ad- 
herence to  any  tradition  or  creed,  as  men  and 
women  everywhere  come  to  care  more  for  the 
victory  of  Truth  than  they  do  for  the  triumph 
of  their  little  sect.  Only  then  will  "the  world 
hasten  the  advent  of  that  universal  religion 
that  shall  lift  mankind  above  all  differences  of 
caste,  color,  creed  and  race,  into  that  sublime 
religious  fellowship  which  has  been  the  dream 
of  every  age  and  every  race." 


237 


CHAPTER  XI 


UNITY   AND   DEMOCRACY 


"Where  bides  Brotherhood, 
Where,  but  within? 


So  never  shall  charity  avail  me. 

And    never    kind    words    nor    the   urging   of   excellent   laws. 
Nor  warring   for   weighty  politics,  nor  voting  with  the  op- 
pressed— 
Only  the  going  to  Self,  is  a  going  to  my  brother  — 
Only  walking  deep  in  to  the  heart  of  love  is  walking 
Out  to  the  darkened  cities  of  men." — James  Oppenheim. 

DEMOCRACY  is  one  of  the  great  words 
that  has  come  to  enshrine  the  ideals  of 
humanity  in  this  modern  age.  To  many  it  is 
merely  a  word  to  conjure  by;  to  others  it  is 
like  some  Frankenstein  monster,  to  be  dreaded 
and  feared;  to  thoughtful  men  it  means  the 
next  step  forward  in  civilization;  while  to  the 
vast  majority  it  is  vague  and  nebulous,  though 
wonderfully  alluring,  as  it  seems  to  promise 
a  greater  degree  of  liberty  and  a  larger  meas- 
ure of  happiness  for  mankind. 

238 


UNITY  AND  DEMOCRACY 

Never  before  has  this  great  word  dominated 
so  largely  the  world's  thinking,  never  has  it 
been  heard  so  frequently  on  human  lips,  nor 
appeared  so  often  in  print, — in  editorial,  in 
sermon,  in  lecture.  When,  in  April  1917, 
President  Wilson  set  forth  the  reasons  for  the 
entrance  of  the  United  States  into  the  Great 
Conflict,  summing  it  all  up  in  that  now  classic 
phrase, — "to  make  the  world  safe  for  democ- 
racy," he  took  the  great  word  once  and  for  all 
out  of  the  realm  of  academic  theory  and  politi- 
cal opinion  and  established  it  forever  as  the 
practical  ideal  for  human  striving  the  whole 
world  round. 

From  that  hour  all  the  prodigious  sacrifice 
of  men  and  money  involved  in  the  world-war 
took  on  a  new  and  higher  significance,  and  in 
countless  hearts  there  was  born  the  conviction 
that  at  last,  in  the  ideals  of  Democracy  for  the 
whole  world,  we  had  discovered  something 
worthy  of  the  very  best  we  had  to  give. 

But  what  is  the  great  thing  for  which  we 
have  professed  Avillingness  to  give  our  all,  if 
need  be?  What  do  we  mean  by  Democracy? 
What  is  the  true  content  of  the  word  that 

239 


SPIRIT  OF  THE  NEW  PHILOSOPHY 

towers  above  all  other  words  in  our  speech  to- 
day? The  answers  run  the  gamut  from  the 
crass  statement  of  the  politician,  "Democracy 
is  every  man's  right  to  do  as  he  d — n  pleases," 
to  the  vague  reply  of  the  reformer  who  tells  us 
that  Democracy  is  nothing  less  than  Human 
Brotherhood.  The  fact  is,  that  for  most  peo- 
ple the  conception  of  Democracy  is  vague,  in- 
definite and  superficial. 

The  time  has  gone  by,  however,  when  any 
intelligent  person  can  longer  afford  to  be  con- 
tent with  high-sounding  phrases,  while  he  re- 
mains in  practical  ignorance  of  the  real  mean- 
ing of  Democracy  and  all  that  it  involves  for 
the  world.  Our  sacrifices  to  make  the  world 
safe  for  democracy  will  have  been  glorious  or 
inglorious  according  to  the  content  we  put  into 
the  great  word.  The  actual  progress  of  hu- 
manity, now  that  the  war  is  over,  depends  upon 
the  depth  and  breadth  of  our  insight  into  the 
true  meaning  of  Democracy  now. 

Let  us  confess  it  frankly,  at  the  outset,  if 
Democracy  means  nothing  more  than  the  pol- 
iticians say  it  means,  then  it  is  a  futile  thing 
and  our  sacrifices  will  have  been  in  vain.     It 

240 


UNITY  AND  DEMOCRACY 

is  a  vastly  larger,  broader,  deeper  and  more 
universal  conception  of  Democracy,  for  which 
the  world  expectantly  waits  to-day. 

Before  proceeding  to  consider  the  inner  es- 
sentials of  democracy,  let  us  think  briefly  of 
some  of  the  outward  manifestations  with  which 
it  is  identified  in  many  minds.  Democracy 
may  find  expression  as  a  theory  of  govern- 
ment, which  declares  that  the  real  sovereignty 
is  vested  in  the  People  (spelled  with  a  capital 
P).  There  is  no  question  but  that  democracy 
does  involve  a  theory  of  government,  but  it  is 
vastly  more  than  mere  theories  of  government. 

Or,  it  may  be  conceived  of  as  a  definite  form 
of  political  organization,  a  particular  kind  of 
government  as  opposed  to  an  oligarchy,  a  mon- 
archy, etc.,  in  which  the  people  possess  the 
right  to  elect  their  own  representatives  in  city, 
state  and  nation.  It  is  inevitable  that  any 
democracy  must  find  outward  expression  in  a 
popular  form  of  government,  but  democracy 
itself  is  vastly  deeper  than  any  mere  external 
organization. 

Or,  yet  again,  it  may  be  regarded  as  a 
method  of  social  expediency,   a  sop  thrown 

241 


SPIRIT  OF  THE  NEW  PHILOSOPHY 

to  the  restless  and  discontented  "masses," 
whereby  they  are  led  to  imagine  that  they 
possess  more  power  in  the  affairs  of  govern- 
ment than  they  actually  do  possess,  and  thus 
the  more  turbulent  spirits  among  them  are  held 
in  check — for  a  time.  This  is  the  base  and  un- 
worthy use  that  is  made  of  the  great  word  by 
so  many  self-seeking  politicians  to-day. 

While  it  is  true  that  some  form  of  outward 
organization,  together  with  all  the  necessary 
external  machinery,  is  obviously  implied  in  the 
word  democracy,  its  actual  and  vital  meaning 
is  contained  in  the  great  Idea  which  ever  tends 
to  externalize  itself  in  some  form,  and  in  the 
great  Spirit  which  always  creates  its  own  body. 
If  democracy  consists  of  nothing  more  than  a 
theory  of  government  or  a  particular  kind  of 
political  organization,  it  would  be  an  entirely 
hopeless  enterprise, — the  climax  of  unreason, 
the  consummate  delusion  of  histoiy. 

The  comparative  failure, — or  shall  we  say, 
the  limited  success  of  Democracy  in  the  world 
thus  far,  considered  as  an  outward  form  of 
Government,  is  due  not  to  the  Idea  or  Spirit 
that  lie  at  its  heart,  but  rather,  to  the  primary 

242 


UNITY  AND  DEMOCRACY 

emphasis  having  been  placed  upon  external 
manifestations  instead  of  upon  their  inner 
sources.  Real  democracy  is  not  a  thing  of 
mechanical  forms,  it  is  a  thing  of  life.  And 
the  life  must  come  first  and  create  its  own  ap- 
propriate forms,  or  else  we  have  an  imperfect 
and  dead  machine  instead  of  a  living,  growing 
reality. 

There  is  another  conception  of  Democracy, 
well-nigh  universal  to-day,  that  is  wholly  in- 
adequate and  misleading.  It  is  contained  in 
the  statement  so  often  made  that  Democracy 
means  "the  rule  of  the  common  people." 
Now,  if  we  mean  that  the  "common  people" 
are  entitled  to  the  rights  and  privileges  of  all 
other  people,  this  is  certainly  true;  but  if  we 
mean,  as  usually  is  meant  by  these  words,  the 
rule  of  a  particular  class  of  people  as  opposed 
to  some  other  class,  our  conception  is  utterly 
false  to  the  root  idea  in  Democracy. 

For  Demos  is  "the  people," — all  the  people, 
irrespective  of  any  other  distinctions  that  may 
be  made.  The  slogan  so  often  heard  to-day, 
"Down  with  the  plutocrats,  or  the  aristocrats, 
and  elect  the  people  to  office,"  is  not  the  ex- 

243 


SPIRIT  OF  THE  NEW  PHILOSOPHY 

pression  of  the  democratic  idea,  though  the 
soap-box  agitator  who  uses  such  language 
would  doubtless  be  surprised  if  you  told  him  he 
was  not  only  intemperate  in  speech  but  un- 
democratic in  spirit.  He  imagines  he  is  voic- 
ing genuine  democracy  in  thus  shouting  up 
"the  people"  and  shouting  down  "the  pluto- 
crats." But  nothing  can  be  more  undemo- 
cratic, for  real  democracy  recognizes,  believes 
in  and  works  for  the  good  of  all  of  the  people, 
— rich  and  poor,  high  and  low,  wise  and 
ignorant, — all  of  the  time.  Democracy  takes 
in  the  last  individual,  no  matter  to  what  "class" 
in  society  he  may  belong;  if  it  leaves  out  a 
single  one,  the  highest  or  the  lowest,  it  ceases 
to  be  a  genuine  democracy. 

No  one  will  deny  that  the  organizations  in 
modern  society  that  are  really  based  upon 
class-consciousness,  regardless  of  which  class  it 
is,  while  they  may  be  rendering  genuine  service 
to  the  coming  democracy  in  seeking  rights  and 
privileges  for  the  people  they  represent  and 
who  deserve  equal  rights  and  privileges  with 
all  others  in  society,  are  actually  guilty  of  di- 
viding Demos,  of  destroying  the  basic  unity 

244 


UNITY  AND  DEMOCRACY 

that  should  bind  all  people  together,  of  making 
distinctions  in  a  society  to  which  all  classes  are 
essential;  and  in  just  so  far  as  this  idea  and 
spirit  are  expressed,  they  are  hindering,  not 
helping,  the  coming  of  the  real  democracy. 

We  are  now  ready  for  the  positive  question: 
What  then  constitutes  the  inner  meaning  and 
true  essence  of  democracy?  No  student  of  the 
subject,  as  he  traces  the  idea  of  democracy 
down  through  history,  can  fail  to  be  convinced 
that  back  of  all  theories  and  opinions  about 
democracy  there  lies  some  kind  of  a  conception 
of  equality.  Let  us  take  the  classic  statement 
in  our  own  Declaration  of  Independence, — 
"All  men  are  created  free  and  equal,"  and  ask 
ourselves,  not  what  did  the  framers  of  the 
Declaration  mean  by  these  words,  but  what  do 
they  mean  for  us  of  to-day? 

We  know  from  experience  that  no  man  is 
ever  born  free  in  the  absolute  sense.  Every 
life  comes  into  this  world  imder  a  lien  of  all 
manner  of  obligations.  Not  even  a  Nero  or  a 
Napoleon  or  a  Kaiser  is  ever  free  to  do  as 
he  pleases.  Freedom  never  means  license, 
though  it  is  often  interpreted  as  such.     No 

245 


SPIRIT  OF  THE  NEW  PHILOSOPHY 

right-minded  man  ever  wishes  to  be  free  in  tliis 
sense.  He  is  glad  to  own  the  bond  of  human 
sohdarity  whereby  he  suffers  and  enjoys  with 
all  other  men.  What  is  this  freedom,  then, 
which  we  are  all  said  to  inherit  as  a  natural 
birthright?  It  is  simply  a  man's  freedom  to 
grow  and  become  every  inch  a  man.  It  does 
not  yet  fairly  exist,  for  it  cannot  be  realized 
fully  in  a  brutal  or  selfish  society.  It  is  still 
an  ideal  to  be  attained  outwardly,  though  there 
are  many  who  have  discovered  that  deeper 
freedom  which  does  not  consist  in  escaping  out- 
ward limitations,  but  rather,  in  achieving  free- 
dom within,  through  the  finding  one's  true 
Self. 

What  do  we  mean  by  the  "equality  of  all 
men"?  Equality  is  a  common  but  elusive 
word ;  it  is  not  easily  defined,  and  most  people 
fight  shy  of  the  idea  of  it.  Many  think  of  it 
as  a  strange  outburst  of  idealistic  enthusiasm 
which  was  flung  up  from  the  depths  in  the 
tragic  disturbances  of  the  French  Revolution; 
or  else,  as  a  somewhat  sinister  claim  made  by 
those  who  have  not,  upon  those  who  have. 

It  is  here  that  our  organic  conception  of  so- 

246 


UNITY  AND  DEMOCRACY 

ciety  throws  light  on  the  problem.  We  are  all 
equal  in  the  sense  that  we  have  each  a  place 
and  a  function  within  the  Whole,  and  each  of 
us  functioning  in  his  place  is  necessary  to  the 
Whole.  Our  equality,  then,  is  the  equality  of 
service  to,  or  function  within,  the  living  body 
of  humanity.  And  this  sense  of  equality  with 
all,  is  only  possible  as  we  come  to  realize  the 
unity  that  binds  us  all  together  as  individual 
members  of  the  social  organism.  Before  we 
can  become  fully  conscious,  then,  of  the  root- 
idea  in  democracy,  which  is  equality,  we  must 
have  entered  into  the  actual  experience  of  the 
spiritual  unity  that  binds  us  all  into  One. 

With  the  organic  conception  of  society  there 
has  come  a  deep  and  steadily  growing  convec- 
tion that  every  individual  should  have  the 
equal  opportunity  to  develop  his  inner  capaci- 
ties and  latent  potentialities  to  the  very  high- 
est; in  other  words,  he  should  have  the  equal 
chance  to  become,  not  another,  but  his  own 
best  possible  Self.  This  right  to  the  oppor- 
tunity of  self-development,  however,  is  not  for 
his  own  sake  alone,  not  that  he  may  live  the 
fullest  possible  life  apart  in  the  individualistic 

247 


SPIRIT  OF  THE  NEW  PHILOSOPHY 

sense,  but  rather,  that  he  may  contribute  his 
very  utmost  to  the  society  of  which  he  is  an 
integral  and  necessary  member. 

Therefore,  it  follows  that  a  real  democracy 
would  make  possible  for  every  individual  an 
equal  opportunity  with  all  other  individuals  to 
attain  his  or  her  highest  and  best,  not  alone  be- 
cause of  any  intrinsic  "right"  in  the  individual 
apart  from  society,  but  also,  because  a  real 
democracy  would  regard  every  individual,  even 
the  least,  as  an  essential  part  of  itself,  and 
would  recognize  that  only  as  each  individual 
did  attain  his  highest  possible  development, 
physically,  mentally  and  morally,  could  it  ex- 
pect to  become  a  complete  and  harmoniously 
working  Whole. 

Almost  from  the  dawn  of  civilization,  some 
ideal  of  democracy  has  been  gradually  form- 
ing, slowly  growing  and  expanding,  until  to- 
day it  has  become  the  all-compelhng  ideal  of 
the  age.  From  Plato's  "Republic"  down  to 
Bellamy's  "Looking  Backward,"  there  has 
scarcely  been  an  age  when  some  prophetic  soul 
has  not  given  the  world  his  dream  of  an  ideal 
state,  a  democratic  society,  either  in  poetry  or 

S48 


UNITY  AND  DEMOCRACY 

prose.  But  all  men  have  never  yet  perceived 
clearly  the  ideal,  and  few  even  as  yet  have 
grasped  its  deeper  meaning  or  come  to  appre- 
ciate its  profound  possibilities  for  human  ad- 
vancement. 

Henry  George,  as  Professor  Brooks  points 
out,  did  not  give  his  life  merely  for  a  system 
of  taxation.  For  thirty  years  he  worked  with 
high  and  rare  devotion  to  convert  the  world  to 
his  "single  tax,"  but  beyond  this  lay  the  thing 
he  cared  for  most,  the  larger  equality  which  he 
believed  the  single  tax  would  usher  in.  This 
has  been  the  great  end  for  which  all  true  re- 
formers have  toiled,  regardless  of  the  differ- 
ent means  to  which  they  have  given  their 
noblest  efforts. 

Those  who  have  written  most  powerfully  in 
favor  of  equality  have  been  moved  to  expres- 
sion by  the  violent  and  flaunting  inequalities 
amidst  which  they  lived.  Rousseau  and  God- 
win, the  aristocrat  St.  Simon  and  the  demo- 
cratic Fourier,  down  to  recent  writers  like 
Zola  and  Tolstoi,  are  impatient  and  even  bitter 
before  the  fact  that  those  who  have  too  little 
and  those  who  have  too  much  so  constantly 

249 


SPIRIT  OF  THE  NEW  PHILOSOPHY 

jostle  each  other  along  the  highway  of  a  com- 
mon life.  It  was  Godwin  who  wrote,  "The 
human  mind  is  incredibly  subtle  in  inventing 
an  apology  for  that  to  which  its  inclination 
leads." 

All  down  through  human  history,  this  mas- 
ter passion  has  found  expression  again  and 
again  in  the  attempt  to  establish  the  ideal  com- 
munity, the  Utopian  state,  where  men  and 
women  might  live  and  work  together  as  com- 
mon equals.  Sometimes  these  communities 
have  been  founded  purely  on  the  religious 
basis,  sometimes  on  the  social  basis;  and  while 
in  one  sense  they  have  all  failed,  in  that  they 
have  never  succeeded  in  transforming  society 
and  bringing  the  world  to  their  way  of  life,  in 
a  deeper  sense  no  one  of  them  has  been  a  com- 
plete failure,  however  short-lived,  because  they 
have  all  served  to  keep  the  ideal  of  a  demo- 
cratic community  before  the  eyes  of  the  world. 
They  have  been  sincere  experiments  in  the 
small  of  what  will  one  day  be  realized  in  the 
large. 

All  that  has  gone  before  in  the  age-old 
movement  towards  democracy,  all  the  strug- 

250 


UNITY  AND  DEMOCRACY 

gles  for  individual  rights,  all  the  earnest 
search  for  a  truer  equality,  finds  its  culmina- 
tion in  this  modern  age,  in  the  vital  conception 
of  Humanity  as  a  living  organism,  in  which 
all  nations,  as  well  as  individuals,  are  essential 
members  one  of  another,  where  individual 
rights  still  exist,  not  for  the  sake  of  the  in- 
dividual, but  in  order  that  the  individual  may 
better  discharge  his  duties  in  the  service  of  hu- 
manity, where  the  spirit  of  sincere  and  self- 
sacrificing  cooperation  for  the  good  of  the 
Whole  displaces  the  old  spirit  of  selfish  indi- 
vidualism. 

We  perceive,  then,  that  real  democracy,  in 
the  nature  of  things,  cannot  come  from  without 
where  we  have  been  accustomed  to  seek  it;  it 
is  a  gradual  gi'owth  from  within  society.  Ed- 
ward Carpenter  calls  it  a  "body  within  a  body." 
The  figure  is  that  of  the  perfect  insect  being 
preformed  in  the  larva.  Underneath  the 
larval  covering,  the  normal  life  of  the  larva  is 
proceeding,  the  form  of  the  perfect  insect 
dimly  appearing;  so  that  the  body  of  the  in- 
sect seems  to  lie  slumbering  there,  enfolded  in 
a  thin,  half-transparent  birth-shrou'd.     In  due 

251 


SPIRIT  OF  THE  NEW  PHILOSOPHY 

time  this  protective  sac  bursts  and  falls  away 
and  the  insect  is  liberated,  unfolds  its  wings 
and  rises  into  the  life  for  which  it  has  been  pre- 
pared. 

From  all  that  science  has  revealed  there  is 
little  doubt  that  the  human  order  issued  from 
the  sub-human  in  some  such  fashion  as  this. 
The  human  order  rose  out  of  the  sub-human 
by  a  process  inconceivably  slow  and  inappre- 
ciably gradual.  While  the  animal  kingdom 
went  on  its  usual  way  the  new  kingdom  was 
forming  within  it,  "a  body  within  a  body." 
"Nothing  but  the  patience  of  an  Infinite  God 
could  have  watched  with  joy  the  first  faint 
beginnings  of  human  things, — the  dawn  of 
reason,  flicker  after  flicker,  with  long  intervals ; 
the  first  faint  pulses  of  what  was  to  become 
conscience,  so  faint,  so  easily  quenched,  but 
always  returning,  strangely  reenforced;  the 
breaking  light  of  self-consciousness  emerging 
out  of  a  group  consciousness;  the  seemingly 
interminable  stretches  of  half-light,  the  age- 
long twilight  of  the  coming  race;  not  to  be 
hurried,  for  the  ascending  life  must  have  a  fit- 
ting organism  through  which  to  express  itself, 

252 


UNITY  AND  DEMOCRACY 

and  the  requisite  physical  and  psychical 
changes  could  only  be  accomplished  by  infin- 
itesimal steps." 

Something  of  this  same  kind  is  surely  tak- 
ing place  within  the  structure  of  modern  so- 
ciety. We  need  not  blind  our  eyes  to  the  evils 
that  still  exist.  It  is  hke  a  ghastly  panorama, 
passing  before  the  eye  of  the  Spirit,  to  look 
forth  upon  society  to-day.  We  cannot  deny 
these  things  nor  do  we  try  to  explain  them 
away ;  but  still,  we  dare  to  affirm  that  they  are 
after  all  the  larval,  surface  things ;  they  do  not 
reveal  the  hidden  depths  where  the  true  de- 
mocracy is  forming. 

All  the  good  work  that  has  been  done 
through  the  ages  by  individuals  and  groups 
finds  here  its  true  significance.  All  the 
saints,  heroes,  martyrs,  reformers,  prophets, 
saviours,  lovers,  nurses,  quiet  kindly  folk,  and 
all  ministering  spirits ;  all  the  religious  organi- 
zations of  whatsoever  name,  the  philanthropic 
societies,  scientific  movements,  legislative  en- 
actments, hospitals,  reformatories,  care  of  in- 
fants, protection  of  children,  old-age  pensions, 
etc.,  etc.,  all  these  activities  are  not  fragmen- 

253 


SPIRIT  OF  THE  NEW  PHILOSOPHY 

tary  and  unrelated  spasms  of  love,  dependent 
entirely  upon  the  enthusiasm  of  the  individual 
heart ;  they  are  simply  the  more  obviously  pro- 
truding points  of  the  more  perfect  society  that 
is  being  preformed  within  the  less  perfect ;  and 
the  greater  part  of  that  inner  body — the  true 
democracy — is  invisible,  deeply  lying,  subtly 
pervasive,  ready  to  appear  at  miexpected 
places,  and  slowly  being  strengthened  and 
fashioned  from  within.  Just  as  surely  as  the 
insect  must  at  last  ascend  out  of  the  shattered 
and  discarded  cerements  of  the  larva,  so  the 
inward,  spiritual  Kingdom — the  true  human- 
ity— must  liberate  itself  and  triumph  glori- 
ously over  the  world-kingdoms,  whatsoever 
they  may  be. 

The  final  emergence  of  the  true  Democracy 
will  not  be  without  a  struggle — many  strug- 
gles— for  the  crust  is  thick  and  we  must  n,ot 
underrate  the  obstacles.  Organized  society  is 
full  of  self-deceit,  smooth-faced  respectability, 
smug  self-complacency,  cowardice,  infidelity, 
soul-stifling  mechanism,  rule-of-thumb  moral- 
ity, formal  rehgion,  mutual  distrust,  ahenation 
from  nature,  greed,  selfishness,  envy,  slavery, 

254 


UNITY  AND  DEMOCRACY 

conventionalism,  the  puppet-dance  of  gentility, 
condescension,  patronizing  charity, — all  these 
and  much  more  that  might  be  named  are  ap- 
parently enough  to  stifle,  choke  and  strangle 
any  pulse  of  spiritual  idealistic  life;  and  it  is 
not  strange  that  so  many  hearts  of  men  and 
women  are  exhausted,  prostrated,  bruised  and 
broken  beneath  it.  But  the  living  spirit  of 
democracy  is  present  underneath  it  all,  touch- 
ing all,  forgetting  none,  understanding  every- 
thing, despising  nobody,  accepting  all,  waiting 
its  own  time  for  full  deliverance. 

The  realization  of  democracy,  then,  must  be- 
gin in  the  individual.  It  consists  in  the  awak- 
ening of  the  inner  consciousness  to  the  sense  of 
the  oneness  of  the  Self  with  the  Whole.  It 
is  then,  in  essence,  one  with  the  unity  that  we 
seek.  In  fact,  it  is  only  another  name  for  that 
spiritual  unity  which  we  have  found  to  be  the 
essence  of  all  of  life,  even  as  it  is  the  funda- 
mental truth  in  real  religion.  Like  unity,  de- 
mocracy is  not  a  theory  only,  but  a  feeling;  not 
an  ideal  merely,  but  an  inner  consciousness. 
All  men  are  not  brothers  simplj^  because  they 
belong  to  some  church,  or  have  joined  some 

255 


SPIRIT  OF  THE  NEW  PHILOSOPHY 

fraternal  order,  or  are  accustomed  to  applaud 
sentiments  of  brotherhood,  whenever  ex- 
pressed. We  are  only  brothers  when  we  feel 
brotherliness.  Brotherhood,  or  the  equality 
that  underlies  democracy,  is  always  a  thing  of 
the  inner  life;  it  must  not  only  be  a  belief,  but 
an  actual  experience;  it  must  be  known  and 
felt  and  loved  as  the  life  of  our  lives. 

There  are  three  prophets  in  this  modern  age 
who  stand  forth  preeminently,  as  having  been 
habitually  and  instinctively  aware  that  democ- 
racy is  neither  a  form  of  government  only,  nor 
a  mere  social  expediency,  but  a  realized  ex- 
perience of  the  inner  mind  and  heart  of  man: 
Ralph  Waldo  Emerson,  Walt  Whitman  and 
Maurice  Maeterhnck.  These  are  in  truth  the 
great  "poets  and  prophets  of  democracy,"  but 
in  what  sense? 

To  these  it  has  been  given  as,  perhaps,  to 
none  others,  to  possess  the  invincible  sense  of 
the  democracy  of  all  life  and  its  manifold  ex- 
periences, to  see  that  all  the  experiences  of  all 
men  are  equally  penetrated  by  the  genuine  and 
infinite  energies  of  nature,  to  discern  the  di- 
vine as  everywhere  present,  to  realize  the  un- 

256 


UNITY  AND  DEMOCRACY 

fathomable  and  equable  character  of  our  im- 
mediate, ordinary  and  so-called  insignificant 
experiences,  to  glorify  the  commonplace,  to 
regard  as  sacred  and  as  possessing  absolute 
and  intrinsic  value,  all  persons  and  everything 
that  is. 

True  democracy,  therefore,  awakens  in  the 
individual  consciousness,  but  it  cannot  remain 
passive.  It  is  something  tremendously  urgent 
in  the  heart  of  the  individual  and  of  society. 
It  is  the  ever-ascending  hfe,  which  is  always 
One  Life.  It  is  a  hving  power  which  forms, 
grows,  expands  within,  and  ever  and  anon 
bursts  forth  and  breaks  through,  bringing  dis- 
organization and  destruction  to  traditional  ex- 
isting forms,  as  we  see  it  doing  to-day,  but 
only  that  it  may  create  the  new  and  higher 
form.  It  is  the  perpetual  Will  to  incarnate 
the  new  humanity. 

Thus  it  follows  that  there  is  just  as  much 
real  democracy  in  the  world  to-day  as  there 
are  men  and  women  possessed  by  the  spirit  of 
democracy,  no  more,  no  less.  If  there  is  to  be 
more  of  democracy  in  the  nation  to-morrow, 
it  will  only  come  because  a  larger  number  of 

257 


SPIRIT  OF  THE  NEW  PHILOSOPHY 

individuals  have  caught  the  spirit  of  democ- 
racy. If  there  is  to  come  into  the  hfe  of  the 
world  a  fuller  measure  of  democracy,  and  that 
is  the  end  for  which  we  strive,  it  can  only  come 
as  the  nations  of  the  world  begin  to  grasp  more 
and  more  the  true  spirit  of  democracy.  And 
that  spirit  is  ever  and  always  the  spirit  of 
mutual  cooperation  of  all  for  the  highest  good 
of  all.  It  is  the  snirit  of  unselfishness  displac- 
ing selfishness.  It  is  the  emphasis  on  duties 
rather  than  the  insistence  on  rights.  It  is  the 
supreme  achievement  of  the  true  Self  in  men 
and  women,  in  gaining  the  victory  over  all  the 
lesser  selves. 

The  primary  emphasis,  however,  must  be 
placed  continually  on  the  priority  of  the  in- 
wardness of  democracy.  All  proceeds  from 
within.  All  social  watchwords  are,  first  of  all, 
spiritual  facts;  and  nothing  can  ever  become 
organized  in  society  which  was  not  first  in  the 
heart.  Structure  follows  desire,  as  desire  fol- 
lows vision.  Revelation  precedes  reforma- 
tion. The  seer  comes  before  the  doer.  The 
practical  man,  whom  we  have  made  our  idol 
in  this  modern  age,  would  be  impotent  were  it 

258 


UNITY  AND  DEMOCRACY 

not  for  the  dreamer.  The  philosopher  ration- 
alizes the  intuition  of  the  prophet ;  the  scientist 
formulates  the  imagination  of  the  poet;  the 
reformer  institutionalizes  the  vision  of  the 
mystic.  We  forget,  therefore,  that  the  man 
who  generates  and  spreads  abroad  from  his 
own  vital  center,  sincere,  true,  profound  broth- 
erly feeling,  has  a  more  important  place  in 
building  up  the  true  democracy  than  the  man 
who  endows  a  college  or  establishes  an  institu- 
tion. 

Even  more  important  than  making  the 
world  safe  for  democracy,  by  the  overthrow  of 
political  autocracies  wherever  they  still  exist, 
is  the  still  more  primary  duty  of  making  de- 
mocracy real  for  the  world  by  the  utter  de- 
struction of  that  deadliest  of  all  autocracies, — 
the  autocracy  of  the  self  in  nations  and  in  men. 
The  German  militaristic  system  was  simply 
the  final,  tragic  flowering  forth  of  the  hideous 
autocracy  of  selfishness,  that  lies  in  the  heart 
of  all  men  and  nations. 

This,  then,  is  the  true  democracy:  a  body 
within  the  body,  the  slow  ascending  Kingdom 
of  good-will  and  unselfish  service,  the  ultimate 

259 


SPIRIT  OF  THE  NEW  PHILOSOPHY 

truth  of  human  society ;  not  waiting  our  arrival 
at  the  end  of  a  long  history  of  social  experi- 
ment and  reform,  but  itself  determining  from 
within  each  revolution,  each  rearrangement  of 
parts,  each  readjustment  of  function.  From 
outside  we  appear  to  be  forever  seeking, 
through  antagonisms  and  failures,  to  discover 
the  perfect  pohtical  and  social  organization. 
From  within,  which  is  the  truth  side,  the  ideal 
and  perfect  humanity  is  seeking  to  express 
itself  amid  all  the  intractableness  of  human 
minds  and  wills. 

But  the  ultimate  issue  is  pre-determined — 
even  now  it  is  finding  a  broader,  fuller  expres- 
sion than  ever  before.  And  with  its  coming 
shall  emerge  faithfulness,  self-reliance,  pas- 
sionate comradeship,  loyal  cooperation,  true 
freedom.  The  coming  democracy  is  indeed 
the  true  coming  of  the  Son  of  Man  in  the  life 
of  humanity.  It  is  one  with  real  religion. 
And  the  time  of  its  coming  is  only  conditioned 
by  the  awakening  to  consciousness,  first  in  the 
individual,  then  in  the  nation  and  the  world, 
of  the  true  Self  which  is  democracy,  the  one 
Son  of  Man  in  all  men. 


CHAPTER  XII 

THE   COMING   WORLD   UNITY 

"When  the  war-drums  throb  no  longer,  and  the  battle-flags  are 
furled, 
In  the  Parliament  of  Man,  the  Federation  of  the  World." 

— Tennyson. 

IT  is  clearly  evident  to-day  that  the  intel- 
ligent and  progressive  people  of  all  nations 
have  set  their  faces  steadfastly  toward  some 
sort  of  a  World-Unity  that  has  never  yet  had 
an  existence  in  the  life  of  mankind.  The  lead- 
ers are  keenly  aware  that  the  goal  cannot  be 
reached  in  a  decade  or  even,  perhaps,  in  a  cen- 
tury of  time,  but  the  great  thing  is  that  so 
many  have  already  caught  the  vision  and  are 
beginning  to  plan  and  work  for  its  realization. 
Unfortunately,  the  same  cannot  be  said  as 
yet  of  the  Governments  of  the  world,  as  evi- 
denced by  some  of  the  transactions  that  took 
place  at  the  Peace  Conference  at  Paris;  but 
this  is  only  because  the  existing  Governments 

261 


SPIRIT  OF  THE  NEW  PHILOSOPHY 

do  not  yet  truly  represent  all  the  people,  as 
they  surely  must  in  the  new  democracy  that  is 
one  day  coming. 

The  greatest  revelation  of  the  war,  unreal- 
ized before  by  most  men,  has  been  the  state  of 
practical  anarchy  under  which  the  nations  of 
the  world  have  been  attempting  to  hve  their 
separate  lives,  together  with  the  utter  absence 
of  any  true  law  or  order  binding  the  nations  to 
one  another.  Intense  nationalisms,  narrow 
patriotisms,  fierce  competitions,  bitter  rivalries, 
secret  diplomacy,  constant  frictions  of  every 
kind, — all  these  conditions  that  have  character- 
ized the  relations  of  nations  in  what  we  have 
called  a  civilized  age,  have  been  laid  bare  by 
the  pitiless  search-light  of  war,  and  men  have 
been  shocked  into  the  realization  that  the  peace 
and  progress  and  prosperity  of  the  world  have 
been  constantly  subject  to  the  secret  plans  of 
the  Foreign  War  Offices  of  the  respective  na- 
tions, backed  by  the  Junker  class,  and  that,  all 
unconsciously,  the  peoples  of  the  world  have 
been  living  daily  on  the  verge  of  a  volcano. 

Ever  since  that  fatal  day  in  1914,  when  the 
seething  eioiption  broke  forth,  destroying  at 

262 


THE  COMING  WORLD  UNITY 

length  millions  of  human  lives  and  hillions  of 
property  and  literally  tearing  the  world  of  hu- 
man relationships  asunder,  the  people  of  all 
lands  have  determined  that  the  old  irresponsi- 
ble and  immoral  system  of  relations  between 
nations  must  give  place  to  a  new  and  higher 
international  order,  if  life  on  this  planet  is  to 
be  worth  the  living. 

The  most  significant  result  of  the  war  is  the 
beginnings,  at  least,  of  such  a  new  World- 
Order.  The  League  of  Nations  that  came  into 
being  at  Paris  was  forced  upon  the  representa- 
tives of  the  Governments  there  assembled  by 
the  imperious  pressure  of  public  opinion  back 
at  home.  It  came  in  direct  response  to  the 
imperative  demand  of  the  people  that  no  mem- 
ber of  the  Peace  Conference  dared  ignore. 
That  the  League  in  its  inception  was  far  from 
perfect  was,  perhaps,  to  be  expected  when  we 
remember  the  conservative  make-up.  with  a 
few  notable  exceptions,  of  the  personnel  of  the 
Conference. 

As  it  stood  originally,  it  was  not  a  League 
of  Nations,  but  of  Governments;  and  in  its 
first  form,  it  was  in  no  sense  a  World  League, 

263 


SPIRIT  OF  THE  NEW  PHILOSOPHY 

but  merely  an  Alliance  of  the  Great  Powers. 
But  it  is  at  least  a  beginning,  however  disap- 
pointing to  all  forward-looking  minds,  of  what 
may  lead  to  a  veritable  World  League  of  the 
peoples  of  all  nations.  The  Covenant  leaves 
the  way  open  for  revisions  and  changes  which 
must  be  made,  and  which  the  people  themselves 
in  all  lands  can  bring  about  when  they  choose. 
That  they  will  so  choose,  there  can  be  not  the 
slightest  doubt.  For  it  is  clear  that  the  hour 
has  struck  at  last  in  human  history  when  the 
international  anarchy  that  has  existed  between 
nations  in  the  past  must  give  way  to  a  new 
order  that  shall  include  and  safeguard  the  in- 
terests of  all  mankind.  If  the  present  Gov- 
ernments are  not  ready  for  this  new  interna- 
tional order,  then  the  people  will  change  their 
governments,  which  is  always  their  inalienable 
prerogative. 

The  thing  that  must  be  constantly  kept  in 
mind,  however,  is  that  any  League,  or  form  of 
World  organization  that  may  be  brought  into 
being  is,  after  all,  only  a  new  kind  of  machinery 
whose  real  effectiveness  will  depend  not  on  the 
machinery  itself,  but  upon  the  spirit  and  pur- 

264 


THE  COMING  WORLD  UNITY 

pose  behind  it.  Any  organization,  to  be  truly 
successful,  must  have  within  itself  a  soul  to  in- 
form and  infuse  it  with  life,  or  else  it  is  only 
a  question  of  time  when  it  will  be  cast  on  the 
junk-pile  with  all  other  mechanical  failures. 

That  such  a  fate  might  befall  any  new 
World  Order  is  easily  conceivable,  unless  the 
new  life  can  be  developed  and  the  new  soul  be 
evolved  in  the  consciousness  of  nations  and 
races.  It  is  our  firm  conviction  that  the  new 
life  and  soul,  the  necessary  preliminaries  to  a 
successful  new  World  Order,  are  even  now  in 
the  process  of  evolution;  and  there  are  many 
indications  that  the  creative  impulse  in  the 
heart  of  humanity  is  indeed  at  work  to-day, 
fashioning  the  more  worthy  and  adequate  body 
for  its  new  soul. 

The  first  thing  necessary  for  the  full  emer- 
gence of  this  new  soul  in  the  consciousness  of 
humanity  is  the  cultivation  and  development  in 
ourselves  of  the  real  international  mind;  it  is 
this  alone  that  can  bring  into  actual  existence 
any  genuine  internationalism.  Let  us  at- 
tempt, then,  to  analyze  in  outhne  what  we 
mean  by  the  international  mind. 

265 


SPIRIT  OF  THE  NEW  PHILOSOPHY 

In  the  international  anarchy  that  has 
hitherto  prevailed  between  nations,  it  is  clear 
that  the  absence  of  any  real  unity  has  been  due 
to  the  fact  that  the  basic  attitude  of  nations 
toward  one  another  has  been  the  same  as  the 
attitude  of  individuals  toward  each  other  in 
society.  Each  nation  has  been  living  its  in- 
dependent life  and  formulating  its  own  policy 
as  if  it  were  a  distinct  entity,  private,  separate 
and  apart  from  all  other  nations.  The  funda- 
mental conception  of  the  state  since  the  time  of 
Macchiavelli,  who  framed  it,  has  been  that  of 
an  independent,  sovereign  entity,  private, 
separate  and  distinct  from  all  other  states,  that 
had  the  right  to  do  anything  it  had  the  power 
to  do,  that  owed  allegiance  to  no  higher  moral 
law  than  its  own  sovereign  will,  and  that,  there- 
fore, was  essentially  unmoral. 

This  conception  has  continued  to  dominate 
governments  and  statesmen  from  the  fifteenth 
down  to  the  twentieth  century;  and  while  its 
frankest  expression  in  modern  times,  both  in 
theory  and  practise,  has  been  given  to  the 
world  by  Imperial  Germany,  nevertheless  it 
has  been  the  practical  and  imj)licit  conception 

266 


THE  COMING  WORLD  UNITY 

upon  which  all  nations  have  based  their  lives 
and  shaped  their  policies.  It  is  this  old,  medi- 
eval theory  underlying  our  idea  of  the  state 
and  its  rights  that  has  utterly  broken  down 
and  gone  to  pieces  in  modern  times;  and  the 
great  war  was  simply  the  tragic  climax  of  its 
final  downfall. 

Now,  the  international  mind  is  the  mind  that 
has  come  to  see  the  utter  inadequacy  and  the 
flagrant  immorality  of  all  such  old  conceptions 
of  the  state,  and  that  has  clearly  grasped  the 
organic  conception  of  humanity.  It  realizes 
profoundly  that  states  do  not  stand  inde- 
pendently and  alone,  any  more  than  do  indi- 
viduals; that  the  national  self  is  no  more  a 
private,  distinct  and  separate  entity  than  is  the 
individual  self;  that  this  self-seeking,  surface 
self  in  the  state  is,  like  the  superficial,  surface 
self  in  the  individual,  only  an  illusion  that  has 
blinded  men's  eyes  hitherto  to  the  truth.  Just 
as  the  individual  must  become  conscious  of  his 
deeper,  truer  Self  within,  that  is  one  with  the 
deeper  Self  in  all  others,  if  he  would  experience 
real  unity,  even  so  the  state  must  become  con- 
scious  that  it  too  has  a  deeper  Self  that  is  es- 

267 


SPIRIT  OF  THE  NEW  PHILOSOPHY 

sentially  one  with  the  deeper  Self  in  all  other 
states. 

Disunity  between  individuals  exists  because 
most  people  as  yet  are  living  their  lives  from 
the  surface,  selfish  self,  rather  than  from  the 
deeper  center  within;  and  just  so,  intense  na- 
tionalisms, bitter  rivalries  and  fierce  competi- 
tions serve  to  separate  nations  and  races  of 
men,  plunging  them  repeatedly  into  tragic 
strife  and  costly  wars,  because  nations  are  still 
living  their  lives  from  the  surface,  selfish,  na- 
tional selves,  and  have  not  yet  learned  to  live 
from  the  deeper  center  where  all  nations  and 
races  are  seen  to  be  essentially  one. 

It  is  only  through  the  profound  realization 
of  the  truth  of  the  organic  conception  of  hu- 
manity that  this  monstrous  illusion  can  be  per- 
ceived and  finally  banished  from  the  world. 
When  we  come  to  see  that  all  races  and  nations 
and  peoples,  the  smallest  and  weakest  as  well 
as  the  largest  and  strongest,  are  but  integi'al 
members  and  parts  of  the  living  body  of  hu- 
manity, and  as  such,  they  are  all  equally  nec- 
essary to  the  full  and  complete  and  harmonious 
working  of  that  body;  that  the  living  body 

268 


THE  COMING  WORLD  UNITY 

falls  short  of  being  in  a  truly  healthful  condi- 
tion unless  all  its  various  members  and  parts 
are  fulfilling  their  respective  functions  to  the 
highest  degree  of  efficiency,  that  is,  when  each 
part  and  member  is  itself  in  a  true  condition  of 
health,  then  and  not  until  then,  can  we  be  said 
to  have  arrived  at  the  view-point  of  the  inter- 
national mind. 

An  ignorant  or  superstitious  people,  an  op- 
pressed people,  an  exploited  people,  a  people 
that  is  being  treated  unjustly  anywhere,  simply 
means  that  a  member  of  the  Hving  body  of  hu- 
manity is  in  a  diseased  or  abnormal  condition; 
and  just  as  the  health  of  the  physical  organism 
is  always  endangered  if  one  of  its  members, 
even  the  smallest,  becomes  diseased,  just  so 
surely  is  the  health  and  progress  of  the  body 
of  humanity  endangered  when  any  of  its  mem- 
bers, even  the  weakest,  is  forced  to  suffer  un- 
justly. Such  conditions,  allowed  to  continue 
in  the  life  of  any  people,  are  like  slow  blood- 
poisoning  that  taints  and  at  last  destroys  the 
living  organism. 

The  international  mind  also  realizes  that 
there  is  a  higher  patriotism  than  is  to  be  found 

269 


SPIRIT  OF  THE  NEW  PHILOSOPHY 

in  the  narrow  nationalisms  of  the  past.  It 
recognizes  that  above  all  races  and  nations 
stands  Humanity,  just  because  the  Whole  is 
greater  than  any  or  all  of  its  parts;  and  that 
to  the  interests  of  Humanity  as  a  whole  we 
should  give  our  love  and  loyalty.  This  does 
not  involve,  in  any  sense,  that  one  should  love 
his  own  country  any  less,  but  rather,  vastly 
more.  It  means  that  the  old,  narrow,  selfish 
and  exclusive  love  which  a  man  gives  to  his 
country  as  an  end  in  itself,  is  replaced  by  a 
broad,  unselfish  and  all-inclusive  love  for  his 
country  because  of  the  place  it  fills,  the  ideals 
it  furnishes  and  the  function  it  performs  in  the 
growing,  developing  life  of  the  Wliole  of  hu- 
manity. The  more  deeply  and  intensely  a 
man  loves  his  wife,  the  more  deep  and  genuine 
is  his  reverence  and  affection  for  all  woman- 
hood, whom  his  wife  represents.  Just  so,  the 
more  intense  and  intelligent  is  a  man's  love 
for  his  own  country,  the  greater  will  be  his 
respect  and  affection  for  all  other  peoples,  of 
whom  his  country  is  so  vital  a  part. 

The   true   and   inteUigent   patriot   sees   all 
races  and  nations  so  inextricably  bound  to- 

270 


THE  co:ming  world  unity 

gether  in  the  living  body  of  humanity,  he  real- 
izes so  keenly  that  all  their  separate  interests 
are,  after  all,  mutual  interests,  he  knows  so 
well  that  what  helps  one  helps  all  and  that 
what  hurts  one  hurts  all,  that  he  enters  grad- 
ually into  the  profound  sense  of  the  essential 
oneness  of  the  life  humanity  lives  through  all 
of  its  various  members.  This  vast  planet  be- 
comes to  him,  as  it  were,  one  neighborhood  in 
which  there  are  no  real  dividing  walls,  no  true 
boundary  lines.  The  different  races  and  na- 
tions and  peoples  become  for  him  simply  so 
many  branches  of  one  great  family;  and  the 
great  end  of  life  becomes  for  him  the  achieve- 
ment, first  in  the  consciousness  of  his  owti  coun- 
try and  through  that,  in  the  consciousness  of 
humanity,  of  that  sense  of  unity  with  all  that 
he  has  come  to  experience  in  his  own  inner  life. 
The  international  mind  has  also  learned  to 
discern  the  many  likenesses  that  underlie  all 
the  surface  differences  among  peoples;  it  sees 
that  these  likenesses  are  far  more  numerous 
and  more  fundamental  than  any  differences, 
and  so  it  is  inclined  to  stress  these  common 
points  of  contact  and  minimize  the  differences. 

271 


SPIRIT  OF  THE  NEW  PHILOSOPHY 

It  seeks  to  familiarize  itself  with  the  hves  and 
achievements  of  the  great  heroes  and  leaders 
of  other  races  and  nations  as  well  as  of  its  own. 
It  comes  to  appreciate  all  the  beauty  and  truth 
that  lies  revealed  in  the  great  hterature  of  all 
lands,  and  likewise  in  its  art  and  music.  It 
studies  the  laws  and  institutions,  the  languages 
and  customs  of  other  peoples,  and  also  their 
moral  and  religious  systems  with  a  view  of 
finding  those  fundamental  elements  that  are 
common  to  all  peoples.  It  is  open  and  recep- 
tive to  truth,  from  whatever  source  it  may 
come,  and  it  is  not  too  proud  to  learn  from 
all. 

The  international  mind  does  not  believe  that 
any  one  race  or  nation  has  all  the  best  or  all 
the  truth  of  anything ;  neither  does  it  set  up  its 
own  particular  brand  of  culture  as  the  only, 
or  exclusive,  culture  for  the  world.  But  it  be- 
lieves that  each  race  and  nation,  out  of  its  own 
peculiar  experience,  has  something  of  per- 
manent value  to  contribute  to  the  sum  total  of 
truth  and  to  the  universal  culture  of  manldnd. 
It  does  not  think  that  the  highest  ideals  for 
life  are  the  exclusive  property  of  any  single 

272 


THE  COMING  WORLD  UNITY 

people,  but  it  believes  that  the  highest  ideals 
for  humanity  as  a  whole  will  be  made  up  of  the 
blending  of  the  highest  ideals  of  all  peoples 
who  have  aspired  and  struggled  toward  the 
heights  through  all  the  ages. 

Growing  out  of  this  international  mind,  as  it 
evolves  from  the  selfish  and  ignorant  and  ex- 
clusive national  mind  we  have  known,  and  con- 
stantly fostered  by  it,  will  come  the  new  inter- 
national spirit  that  will,  of  necessity,  breathe 
life  and  soul  through  all  the  machinery  of  the 
new  World  Order  that  the  international  mind 
will  eventually  call  into  being. 

This  new  spirit  will  be,  first  of  all,  the  spirit 
of  conscious  unity  permeating  all  that  is 
thought  and  said,  planned  and  done  between 
nations.  It  will  be  a  sense  of  unity  that  is 
vastly  more  than  any  mere  intellectual  theory 
or  that  depends  on  any  mere  form  of  organiza- 
tion, a  unity  that  is  a  feeling,  a  conviction,  an 
experience,  an  actual  realization,  welling  up 
in  the  life  of  the  race,  and  holding  a  profound 
and  abiding  place  in  the  consciousness  of  na- 
tions. This  deep  sense  of  the  essential  one- 
ness of  all  humanity  will  dictate  all  national 

27S 


SPIRIT  OF  THE  NEW  PHILOSOPHY 

policies,  suggest  all  changes  and  inspire  all  re- 
forms, with  a  view  primarily  to  the  best  and 
highest  interests  of  the  peoples  of  all  lands. 
It  alone  will  insure  the  justice  and  the  per- 
manency of  the  new  World  Order  when  at  last 
it  shall  be  brought  into  being. 

This  international  spirit  will  also  inevitably 
suj^i^lant  the  old  spirit  of  international  rivaky 
and  competition  with  the  sj)irit  of  international 
cooperation  and  good-will  toward  all.  The 
fierce  competition  that  has  forced  nations  into 
the  mad  race  for  political  supremacy  in  their 
lust  for  power,  and  that  has  inflamed  them 
with  inordinate  economic  ambitions  in  their 
greed  for  gain,  will  gradually  give  way  to  a 
political  cooperation  for  mutual  strength  and 
safety,  and  an  economic  cooperation  that  shall 
distribute  more  equally  among  all  peoples  both 
the  necessities  and  the  luxuries  of  life. 

This  spirit  of  cooperation,  expressed  by  na- 
tions as  well  as  by  individuals,  will  ever  be  seek- 
ing the  largest  possible  degree  of  prosperity 
and  happiness  for  all  peoples,  not  for  a  few 
powerful  nations  at  the  expense  of  the  weaker 
ones.     Its  watchword  will  be:     The  coopera- 

274 


THE  COMING  WORLD  UNITY 

tion  of  all  for  the  sake  of  the  highest  good  of 
all.  It  cannot  be  manufactured  to  order,  and 
it  will  not  be  realized  in  its  fulness  at  once ;  but 
it  will  steadily  grow  and  develop  as  men  and 
nations  become  more  truly  conscious  of  the  es- 
sential oneness  of  all  who  share  the  common 
life  of  humanity. 

Thus  the  new  international  spirit  will  grad- 
ually displace  the  old  selfish  nationalism  with 
a  higher  unselfish  nationalism,  in  which  all  tliat 
is  good  and  valuable  in  the  old  will  be  pre- 
served, while  all  that  was  bad  and  the  cause  of 
the  tragic  disunity  among  nations,  will  fall 
away  and  be  forgotten.  When  that  day 
comes,  men  will  look  back  on  these  times  of 
strife  and  wars  between  nations  with  the  same 
amazement  and  abhorrence  that  we  of  to-day 
look  back  upon  the  cruel  and  barbarous  glad- 
iatorial combats  of  ancient  Rome. 

In  the  new  World  Order  that  is  surely  com- 
ing, that  nation  will  exert  the  greatest  influ- 
ence, not  that  embraces  the  widest  territory  or 
numbers  the  largest  population  or  possesses 
the  greatest  wealth,  but  rather,  that  exempli- 
fies in  both  theory  and  practise  the  highest 

275 


SPIRIT  OF  THE  NEW  PHILOSOPHY 

ideals  of  service  and  helpfulness  to  the  common 
cause  of  humanity  as  a  whole.  That  nation 
will  be  the  most  respected  and  loved  by  all  the 
peoples  that  gives  most  freely  of  its  largess  for 
the  sake  of  enriching  the  life  of  the  Whole. 
That  nation  will  truly  lead  the  world,  not  that 
possesses  the  largest  army,  or  most  powerful 
navy,  or  greatest  merchant  marine,  but  that 
has  learned  to  honestly  say  to  all  the  peoples, 
both  great  and  small,  in  everything  that  its 
national  life  and  policy  involves :  I  am  among 
you  as  one  who  serveth. 

Let  it  not  be  thought  that  this  is  a  World- 
ideal  impossible  of  realization.  It  may  not  be 
realized  in  our  life-time,  but,  in  accordance 
with  the  gi'eat  law  of  human  evolution,  it  will 
surely  become  real  some  day,  and  our  chil- 
dren's children  will  experience  and  enjoy  what 
we  as  yet  glimpse  only  from  afar.  The  vision 
always  precedes  the  reality.  It  is  by  faith  that 
we  eventually  reach  the  promised  land.  Our 
loftiest  dreams,  if  only  we  dream  them  in- 
tensely and  habitually  enough,  will  some  day 
come  true.  The  world  is  young  yet.  Civili- 
zation is  only  in  its  infancy.     Humanity  is  but 

276 


THE  COMING  WORLD  UNITY 

just  learning  to  live  its  life  in  unity,  for  which 
all  the  past  of  struggle  and  bloodshed  has  only 
been  preparing  it.  Besides,  there  is  all  eter- 
nity before  us;  so  why  should  we  grow  dis- 
couraged ? 

The  most  hopeful  sign  of  the  times  is  that 
the  utter  inadequacy  and  pitiable  futility  of 
the  old  order  (or  disorder)  of  things  has  at 
length  been  dragged  into  the  open,  so  that  all 
men  can  see  its  shameful  nakedness.  The 
greatness  of  any  people,  as  of  the  individual, 
is  always  measured  by  the  greatness  of  its 
ideals  and  the  degree  of  their  realization. 
Listen  to  the  scathing  indictment  of  the  na- 
tions as  they  have  been,  in  Paul  Richard's  mes- 
sage, "To  the  Nations." 

"What  was  the  ideal  of  the  world  that  is 
dying?  Judging  by  what  it  professed,  never 
did  more  noble  principles  shine  in  the  sky  of 
humanity:  Liberty,  Justice,  Science,  Prog- 
ress, Civilization.  .  .  .  But  judging  by  what 
it  practised,  never  was  the  abyss  deeper  be- 
tween fact  and  ideal." 

"What  have  the  people  who  call  themselves 
great    made    of    Liberty?     A   monopoly    for 

277 


SPIRIT  OF  THE  NEW  PHILOSOPHY 

themselves.  And  those  who  have  most  use  of 
its  name  are  also  those  who  grant  it  the  least 
to  others.  They  wish  the  liberty  of  reducing 
the  world  to  slavery." 

"What  have  they  made  of  Justice?  A 
guarantee  of  their  own  interests.  But  the 
rights  of  others  were  only  measured  in  their 
eyes  by  the  measure  of  force." 

"What  have  they  made  of  Science?  A  tool 
to  serve  their  greed.  History  will  say  of 
them:  They  acquired  much  knowledge,  but 
they  put  it  to  evil  purposes." 

"What  have  they  made  of  Progress?  A 
soulless  thing,  an  egotistical  and  material 
means  of  domination." 

"What  have  they  made  of  Civilization?  A 
privilege  calculated  on  the  number  of  their  fire- 
arms. A  hypocritical  pretense  covering  their 
worst  undertakings.     A  mask  of  fraud." 

"What  have  they  made  of  Humanity?  A 
field  for  profits,  a  business  market.  They 
have  treated  the  nations  as  possessions  to  be 
bought  and  sold,  as  cattle  to  be  reared  for 
food." 

"And  that  is  why  the  light  of  all  these  great 

278 


THE  COMING  WORLD  UNITY 

words  is  changed  into  the  murky  blood-red 
flame  of  this  immense  conflagration." 

At  last  it  is  beginning  to  be  seen  that  na- 
tions live  on  earth  in  a  vast  complex  of  rela- 
tionships, even  as  do  indi\'idiials ;  each  of  them 
forms  in  humanity  a  real  individuality,  a  col- 
lective being,  living  and  acting.  The  same 
laws  hold  for  nations  as  for  individuals.  Self- 
ish individualism,  whatever  form  it  takes,  is 
as  suicidal  for  a  nation  as  for  an  individual. 
There  is  only  one  moral  law  for  men  and  for 
peoples.  Each  nation  must  impose  upon  itself 
the  same  rules  it  imposes  upon  the  individual. 
Whatever  is  a  crime  for  the  individual,  is  also 
a  crime  for  his  country.  These  truths  are  but 
just  beginning  to  dawn  on  the  world's  mind. 

If  selfishness,  cupidity,  robbery,  violence 
and  murder  are  looked  upon  as  vile  and  de- 
grading acts  for  isolated  men,  how  could  the 
collective  man,  that  is  the  nation,  commit  such 
acts  without  dishonor?  In  what  does  the 
honor  of  a  nation  differ  from  the  honor  of  an 
individual?  And  of  what  use  is  it  for  a  na- 
tion to  assert  this  "honor"  and  defend  it  with 
her  arms,  if  she  herself  continually  violates  it 

279 


SPIRIT  OF  THE  NEW  PHILOSOPHY 

in  face  of  all,  by  her  practises  of  plunder  and 
acts  of  disloyalty? 

If  we  have  come  to  see  that  the  true  great- 
ness of  the  individual  consists  not  in  his  talents, 
his  riches  or  his  fame,  but  solely  in  the  degree 
to  which  he  dedicates  all  he  is  and  all  he  has  to 
the  service  of  the  common  good,  must  the  time 
not  surely  come  when  we  shall  also  realize  that 
the  true  greatness  of  a  nation  consists  only  in 
the  degree  to  which  it  dedicates  its  powers  to 
the  service  of  humanity? 

"Until  now,  the  highest  duty  was  that  of  a 
man  to  his  mother  country.  But  we  are  begin- 
ning in  all  lands  to  see  that  there  is  a  mother- 
country  greater  and  nobler  and  more  im- 
mortal, more  misknown  too,  possessing  fifteen 
hundred  million  inhabitants,  yet  counting  but 
few  citizens ;  a  mother-country  with,  as  yet,  but 
few  lovers.  Henceforth,  it  is  toward  her  that 
men  everywhere  will  feel  their  highest  duty. 
For  she  is  the  supreme  mother-country, — Hu- 
manity. The  higher  patriotism  demands,  not 
that  we  shall  love  one  country  less,  but  human- 
ity more;  a  love  for  country,  not  for  its  own 
sake  alone,  but  because  of  what  it  may  con- 

280 


THE  COMING  WORLD  UNITY 

tribute  to  the  advancement  of  humanity  as  a 
whole." 

"Nations,  living  members  of  a  body  which  is 
ignorant  of  itself,  members  bleeding  through 
one  another,  the  hour  is  come  to  put  an  end 
to  your  mutual  martyrdom,  in  becoming  con- 
scious that  yours  is  but  one  and  the  same  flesh. 
Awake  humanity." 

In  his  powerful  and  prophetic  story,  "In  the 
Days  of  the  Comet,"  Mr.  AVells  tells  of  a  great 
change  that  comes  over  the  world,  following  an 
atmospheric  phenomenon  in  which  a  "green 
vapor"  is  generated  in  the  clouds  and  falls 
upon  the  earth  with  instantaneous  effect.  As 
this  peculiar  vapor  descends  it  has  the  effect 
of  putting  every  one  to  sleep;  this  sleep  con- 
tinues for  three  days;  and  when  the  people 
finally  awake,  their  interior  nature  has  under- 
gone a  complete  change. 

Where  before  they  saw  dimly,  they  now 
see  clearly;  all  petty  differences  and  quarrels 
are  perceived  at  last  in  their  true  perspective. 
Instead  of  place  and  power  and  influence  and 
wealth  being  the  all-important  goals  of  ambi- 
tion,  as   before   the   change,   every   one   now 

281 


SPIRIT  OF  THE  NEW  PHILOSOPHY 

strives  to  be  of  service  to  the  world.  Love 
and  kindness  become  greater  factors  than  com- 
mercial expediency  or  business  success.  Hu- 
man brotherhood  is  realized  at  last.  The  per- 
fected society  has  come  into  its  own  in  the 
world. 

In  many  respects,  Wells's  account  of  the 
great  change  and  its  effect  upon  people  cor- 
responds with  the  effect  of  the  dawning  of  the 
spiritual  consciousness  upon  mankind,  as  we 
have  sought  to  describe  it  in  the  foregoing 
chapters.  Both  religion  and  science  point 
forward  to  a  time  when  this  earth  will  know 
freedom  from  strife  and  misery,  and  all  the 
forms  of  suffering  which  its  tragic  disunity  is 
constantly  occasioning.  Even  the  elements 
which  have  hitherto  been  regarded  as  beyond 
the  boundaries  of  man's  will,  we  see  now,  not 
may  be,  but  most  certainly  will  be  completely 
controlled  in  time.  All  the  factors  and  forces 
that  make  for  social  control  are  now  seen  to  be 
in  the  hands  of  man  himself.  Every  change, 
every  improvement,  every  advance  in  the  life 
of  humanity  awaits  only  the  coming  of  the 
larger  man,  that  is,  the  man  of  the  broader, 

282 


THE  COMING  WORLD  UNITY 

deeper  consciousness,  who  has  found  his  true 
Self  in  union  with  the  Whole. 

Since  the  race  consciousness  must  gradually 
unfold  through  the  slow  unfolding  conscious- 
ness in  its  individual  members,  how  great  and 
solemn  a  moment  it  is  for  the  men  and  women 
who  people  the  earth  to-day!  If  the  new 
World  Order  that  is  to  replace  the  one  that  has 
been  swept  away  in  blood  and  sacrifice,  is  in- 
deed to  grow  out  of  the  new  race  consciousness 
of  the  true  and  essential  unity  of  all  mankind, 
and  thus  make  possible  a  new  humanity,  it  will 
only  be  as  men  and  women  here  and  every- 
where enter  into  the  actual  experience  of  that 
unity  for  themselves  first  of  all.  Thus  the  re- 
sponsibility of  hastening  or  delaying  the  com- 
ing of  the  new  World  Unity  rests  upon  each 
one  of  us.  In  the  stirring  words  of  Edwin 
Markham : 

*  "We  men  of  earth  have  here  the  stuflF 

Of  Paradise, — we   have  enough. 
We  need  no  other  thing  to  build 
The  stairs  into  the  unfulfilled,— 
No  other  Ivory  for  the  doors, — 
No  other  marble   for   the   floors, — 
No  other  cedar  for  the  beam 
And  dome  of  man's  immortal  dream. 

283 


SPIRIT  OF  THE  NEW  PHILOSOPHY 

Here   on  the   paths   of  every  day, — 
Here  on  the  common  human  way, — 
Is  all  the  busy  gods  would  take 
To  build  a  Heaven,  to  mold  and  make 
New  Edens.     Ours  the  stuff  sublime 
To  build  Eternity  in  Time." 


S84 


CHAPTER  XIII 

THE   PATHWAY   OF   REALIZATION 

"Swiftly  arose  and  spread  around  me,  the  peace  and  joy  and 

knowledge  that  pass  all  the  art  and  argument  of  earth; 
And  I  know  that  the  hand  of  God  is  the  elder  hand  of  my 

own, 
And  I  know  that  the  spirit  of  God  is  the  eldest  brother  of 

my  own. 
And  that  all  the  men  ever  born  are  also  my  brothers  and  the 

women  my  sisters  and  lovers. 
And  that  a  kelson  of  creation  is  Love." — Walt  Whitman. 

THE  practical  problem  for  every  one  who 
has  awakened  to  the  meaning  of  the  ideal, 
and  who  aspires  to  the  realization  of  the  prin- 
ciple of  unity  in  his  own  inner  consciousness, 
is  the  way  of  attainment.  What  is  the  method 
by  which,  as  individuals,  as  nations  or  as  hu- 
manitj^  we  may  translate  the  great  ideal  and 
principle  into  actual  daily  experience?  In  the 
foregoing  chapters  we  have  made  a  number  of 
general  suggestions  as  to  methods  to  be  em- 
ployed, but  before  closing  let  us  consider  more 

285 


SPIRIT  OF  THE  NEW  PHILOSOPHY 

specifically  the  supreme  method  for  the  attain- 
ment of  the  true  consciousness  of  unity  with 
All-that-is.  In  a  word,  the  pathway  to  reali- 
zation is  preeminently  the  pathway  of  love. 

But  what  do  we  mean  by  love,  in  this  con- 
nection? It  is  a  word  we  use  with  many  dif- 
ferent shades  of  meaning;  it  is  also  a  word  we 
often  use  without  very  much  of  any  meaning. 
A  mother  "loves"  her  child;  a  lover  "loves"  his 
sweetheart;  one  man  "loves"  horses  and  dogs; 
another  "loves"  nature  or  art  or  music.  But 
what  does  love  mean  when  applied  to  human 
relationships  outside  of  the  family,  or  beyond 
the  circle  of  "loved  ones"?  How  can  one  love 
people  that  he  does  not  know  or,  more  par- 
ticularly, people  that  he  does  not  like? 

What  did  the  Great  Teacher  mean  when  he 
made  Love  the  supreme  law  for  human  as  well 
as  divine  relationships?  Jesus  repeatedly 
said:  "Love  is  the  fulfilling  of  the  law." 
But  of  what  law?  The  law  of  evolution  and 
involution,  of  generation  and  regeneration. 
When  the  time  comes  that  Love  reigns  on  the 
planet  earth  as  it  does  in  the  kingdoms  above 
the  earth,  then  the  Kingdom  that  he  foretold 

286 


THE  PATHWAY  OF  REALIZATION 

will  be  at  hand.  And  the  "law"  will  be  ful- 
filled when  Love  comes  completely  and  fully 
into  its  own  in  the  life  of  humanity. 

There  are  two  words  in  the  Greek  New 
Testament  that  are  rendered  in  English  by  the 
one  word,  "love."  And  yet  these  two  words 
are  radically  different.  Phileo  means  to  love, 
to  feel  affection  for,  to  hold  dear.  It  occurs 
frequently  in  classical  Greek.  The  other 
word,  agapao,  is  rarely  if  ever  used  by  classical 
writers.  It  seems  almost  like  a  new  word, 
coined  to  express  Jesus's  conception  of  God's 
love  for  all  men,  and  man's  love  for  all  his  fel- 
lows. Agapao  is  always  used  in  the  New 
Testament  when  love  is  enjoined  as  a  duty. 
As  one  writer  says:  "As  a  command,  it  en- 
joins a  volitional,  not  an  affectional,  attitude 
of  the  mind  and  heart  toward  others.  The 
word  does  not  necessarily  exclude  affection  and 
is  often  used  to  express  it,  but  when  it  incul- 
cates love  as  a  duty,  what  it  requires  of  us  is 
benevolence,  kindliness,  good-will." 

We  prefer  this  word,  good-will,  then,  to  any 
other,  as  best  expressing  the  meaning  of  love 
in  our  relations  to  people  in  general.     For  the 

287 


SPIRIT  OF  THE  NEW  PHILOSOPHY 

will  is  the  foundation  of  our  being.  It  is  the 
will,  governed  and  guided  by  the  Self,  that 
makes  us  human  and  divine.  It  is  the  dynamic 
power  exerted  by  the  Self.  When  we  are  en- 
joined to  love  all  men,  it  is  not  intended  that 
we  should  have  an  emotional  love,  a  feeling  of 
affection  for  all  men,  least  of  all,  the  kind  of 
affection  we  feel  for  our  "loved  ones,"  but 
rather,  that  our  mental  and  vohtional  attitude 
toward  all  men  should  be  habitually  one  of 
good-will. 

To  thus  have  good-will  for  all  means  to  be 
kindly  disposed  toward  all,  to  refuse  to  cherish 
hatred  or  bitterness  or  scorn,  or  to  harbor  feel- 
ings of  envy  or  jealousy  or  revenge  for  any  liv- 
ing being.  It  means  taking  interest  in  others 
and  in  their  welfare,  as  opposed  to  the  general 
spirit  of  indifference  that  rules  most  of  our 
lives.  It  means  to  trust  others  and  believe  in 
them,  to  look  always  for  the  good  in  others 
rather  than  the  bad,  to  see  their  elements  of 
strength  more  than  their  weaknesses.  It 
means  confidence  in  their  ability  to  become  in 
time  their  highest  and  truest  Selves,  and  the 
willing  desire  to  help  them  in  any  possible  way 

288 


THE  PATHWAY  OF  REALIZATION 

to  attain  their  highest  and  best, — and  all  this, 
regardless  of  any  return  they  may  make  to  us. 

While  it  is  true  that  we  cannot  compel  love 
in  the  emotional  or  affectional  sense,  it  is  pos- 
sible for  every  one  of  us  to  command  the  voli- 
tional love,  which  always  finds  expression  in 
the  attitude  of  good-will  and  friendliness. 
The  one  who  says  that  he  cannot  feel  this  kind 
of  love  for  all  men  and  women  is  simply  de- 
ceiving himself.  What  he  really  means  is  that 
he  does  not  want  to  take  the  attitude  of  good- 
will toward  all,  or  else  that  he  has  not  yet  dis- 
covered his  true  Self  that  knows  itself  to  be  one 
with  all.  This  last  explains  the  absence  of 
good- will  in  the  world  to-day.  For  this  true 
Self  that  commands  the  will,  holds  the  attitude 
of  friendliness  and  kindliness  toward  all,  nat- 
urally and  spontaneously,  simply  because  it  is 
its  nature  so  to  do. 

What  we  need  to  realize  is  that  it  was  in  no 
arbitrary  sense  that  Jesus  and  the  other  great 
spiritual  leaders  of  the  race  have  made  love  the 
one  great  goal  of  man's  unfolding  moral  and 
spiritual  nature;  it  is,  rather,  because  love  is 
woven  into  the  very  warp  and  woof  of  the  uni- 

289 


SPIRIT  OF  THE  NEW  PHILOSOPHY 

verse.  If  love  is  both  the  supreme  essence  of 
that  ideal  unity  we  seek  and  also  the  true 
method  of  its  attainment,  it  is  thus  supreme 
not  because  the  seers  have  said  so;  they  said 
so  simply  because  it  is  supreme,  in  the  very 
nature  of  things.  Love  even  in  religion  has 
usually  been  conceived  as  a  beautiful  poetic 
sentiment,  or  as  one  of  the  "fruits  of  the 
spirit";  but  the  sphere  of  love  is  far  wider. 

Love  is  a  universal  principle,  holding  within 
its  bounds  all  the  cooperating  energies  of  na- 
ture. It  is  the  primal  force  which,  existing  be- 
tween two  or  more  individuals,  draws  them  into 
harmonious  relations  and  establishes  the  foun- 
dations of  happiness.  All  entities,  of  whatever 
character,  which  are  subject  to  the  law  of  mu- 
tual attraction,  are  the  visible  media  of  the 
foreshadowings  of  Love.  "As  much  love  ex- 
ists proportionately  between  two  atoms  as  be- 
tween two  human  beings,  between  the  elements 
that  compose  the  chemical  substance  as  be- 
tween hearts  that  beat  in  unison."  When  sev- 
eral atoms  instinctively  combine  as  constituent 
elements  of  any  substance,  science  calls  the 
uniting  force,  chemical  affinity.     Yet  such  af- 

£90 


THE  PATHWAY  OF  REALIZATION 

finity  is  but  mutual  attraction,  the  common 
force  that  holds  all  entities  in  harmony ;  nor  can 
we  think  of  such  harmonious  relations  but  as 
a  phase  of  the  principle  of  love,  the  primary 
unitary  force  ever  binding  two  or  more  into 
one. 

Love  is  a  cosmic  principle  pervading  the  en- 
tire universe,  and  making  possible  the  won- 
drous unity  in  diversity  that  we  perceive 
everywhere.  Mutual  affinity  inhering  in  the 
particles  of  primal  star-dust  or  nebulse  of  the 
first  fire-mist,  as  we  believe,  drew  them  into 
the  original  rings  or  nodules  of  varying  temper- 
ature and  density,  and  finally  into  the  revolv- 
ing spheres  and  grouping  constellations  that 
make  up  the  vast  and  infinite  universe.  Thus 
we  may  speak  of  the  love  of  the  original  atoms 
without  violating  scientific  verity.  "The 
Cosmos  is  primarily  a  drama  of  primitive 
atomic  loves,  unconsciously  evincing  the  su- 
preme force  that  sustains  the  world." 

The  Force  to  which  Science  leads  us  back  as 
the  ultimate  power  and  source  from  which  all- 
that-is  has  proceeded,  is  nothing  less  than  the 
force  of  love.     As  such  it  reveals  its  cosmic 

291 


SPIRIT  OF  THE  NEW  PHILOSOPHY 

nature;  it  passes  beyond  the  limited  plane  of 
human  relations  and  takes  its  place  in  the  pro- 
cession of  the  stars.  All  the  forces  of  nature 
are  but  the  transmutations  of  a  single  energy, 
and  that  energy  is  the  infinite  and  eternal  self- 
giving  of  Original  Being.  So  love  is  but  the 
transmutation  in  human  and  vital  experience, 
of  gravitation  and  attraction  in  the  material 
world. 

As  we  ascend  from  the  vegetal  to  the  animal 
world,  we  discover  this  ever  present  principle 
increasing  in  power  and  manifestly  directed 
by  individual  intelligence.  Side  by  side  with 
the  struggle  for  existence  is  the  struggle  for 
the  existence  of  others,  as  expressed  through 
the  love  of  offspring.  The  mother-love  in 
animals  is  the  secret  force  that  generates  and 
ever  preserves,  protects  and  defends  its  off- 
spring. In  nature's  marvelous  transmutation 
of  forces,  the  very  selfishness  that  compels  the 
mother  animal  to  fight  for  its  own  young,  be- 
comes unconsciously  altruistic,  in  that  it  re- 
sults in  the  preservation  of  the  entire  species. 

From  a  primitive  force  in  the  animal  world, 
the  love  of  offspring  has  become  in  human  kind 

292 


THE  PATHWAY  OF  REALIZATION 

the  strongest  manifestation  of  the  cosmic  prin- 
ciple of  love  yet  developed.  It  is  at  once  the 
conserving  force  of  civilization  and  the  great 
dynamic  of  evolution. 

The  experience  of  the  race  has  finally  proved 
that  the  family  is  the  essential  and  indispensa- 
ble center  and  unit  of  society.  But  whence 
comes  the  family?  The  answer  gives  us  an- 
other fascinating  chapter  in  the  unfolding 
love-story  of  the  universe,  and  illustrates  most 
beautifully  the  development  of  the  principle  of 
unity  in  hmiian  life.  Although  the  mother- 
love  primarily  protected  the  young  and  thus 
preserved  the  species,  it  was  not  until  mother- 
love,  through  the  lengthened  period  of  in- 
fancy, awoke  the  father-love,  and  the  two 
united,  developed  into  household  love  that  it 
was  possible  for  the  family  to  come  into  being. 
The  love  of  lover  must  become  the  love  of  hus- 
band, the  love  of  husband  and  wife  must  be- 
come the  love  of  father  and  mother,  parental 
love  must  become  household  love,  before  the 
entire  family  is  enrobed  in  love  and  the  bond 
of  unity  is  made  secure.  For  what  is  the  true 
family  but  a  "congregation  of  consanguineous 

293 


SPIRIT  OF  THE  NEW  PHILOSOPHY 

individuals,  bound  together  in  unity  by  the 
sacred  ties  of  love,  each  living  to  serve  the 
other  that  none  may  want"? 

But  the  family,  ideally  conceived,  prefigures 
the  ultimate  ideal  of  the  community,  of  the 
state,  of  the  nation,  of  the  world,  when  all 
members  of  humanity  shall  mutually  function 
in  harmonious  relations,  each  performing  his 
just  and  worthy  duty  toward  all.  Ideal  so- 
ciety will  but  be  approached  when  true  family- 
hood  becomes  voluntary  familyhood,  founded 
only  on  the  principle  of  mutual  affection  and 
mutual  affinity. 

So  the  ideal  nation  will  exist  when  all  classes 
and  individuals  are  bound  together,  not  by 
coercion,  but  voluntarily,  through  conscious 
unity  and  mutual  good-will.  And  thus  the 
ideal  World-state  will  come  into  being  when 
all  nations  and  races  are  voluntarily  bound  to- 
gether, not  through  fear  or  force,  but  mutual 
respect  and  good-will,  growing  out  of  the  new 
consciousness  of  the  essential  oneness  of  hu- 
manity as  a  whole. 

Love,  then,  as  a  volitional  expression  of 
good-will,   friendhness  and  kindliness,  is  the 

294 


THE  PATHWAY  OF  REALIZATION 

ultimate  and  perennial  power  in  human  life 
from  which  all  others  spring.  All  other 
forces  are  ephemeral,  love  alone  is  final  and 
eternal.  Love  is  life,  and  life  is  God,  and 
God  is  love,  and  thus  the  circle  is  complete. 
To  all  who  have  grasped  this  identity  of  life 
and  love,  the  experience  of  love  becomes  the 
experience  of  God,  for  God  is  love.  Substi- 
tute the  word  love  for  the  name  God;  then  to 
know  love  is  to  know  God.  To  love  is  to  be 
conscious  of  Reality.  Love  is  the  universal, 
realized  in  the  particular.  Love  is  the  real  and 
only  Presence.     Love  is  All. 

In  its  human  expressions,  love  is  not  so  much 
one  passion  among  others;  it  is  the  immortal 
aspect  of  a  man  emerging  from  his  hidden 
depths  into  consciousness;  it  is  man's  true  Self 
coming  into  being.  When  a  man  loves,  and 
only  then,  he  is  living  his  life  on  the  universal 
and  eternal  plane;  and  in  just  the  degree  that 
he  surrenders  his  life  to  love's  power,  in  just 
that  degree  is  he  living  out  his  true  and  divine 
Self,  for  the  deepest  essence  of  that  Self  is 
always  love.  The  love-life  is  the  eternal  life, 
for  it  is  literally  God's  life  finding  expression 

295 


SPIRIT  OF  THE  NEW  PHILOSOPHY 

through  the  individual.  He  who  loves,  there- 
fore, knows  himself  as  one  with  God  in  that 
experience,  and  so  is  conscious  of  his  true  unity 
with  All-that-is.  Love  is  God  coming  to  con- 
sciousness in  man.  In  loving,  man  becomes 
most  truly  God. 

The  love-consciousness  is  the  "I  am"  con- 
sciousness. Love  is  the  self-existent  life  in 
man.  It  is  a  kind  of  cosmic  egoism.  We 
catch  hints  of  this  truth  when,  in  moments  of 
love-rapture,  whether  for  a  person  or  a  cause, 
we  lose  all  consciousness  of  locality  or  of 
boundaries.  We  are  not  conscious  in  such  mo- 
ments of  here  and  there;  we  just  are.  It  is 
not  due  to  emptiness  but  to  fulness.  We  are 
conscious  of  being  neither  here  nor  there,  not 
because  we  are  nowhere,  but  because  we  are 
everywhere,  and  all  the  star-peopled  spaces 
seem  to  be  within  us.  We  say  that  we  are 
"carried  out  of  ourselves";  it  would  be  more 
accurate  to  say  that  in  such  moments  there  is 
nothing  that  is  outside  of  us,  that  we  are  car- 
ried deeper  into  our  true  or  cosmic  Selves ;  for 
all  barriers  and  boundaries  have  been  removed 
and  we  know  ourselves  as  one  with  All. 

«96 


THE  PATHWAY  OF  REALIZATION 

Love,  then,  is  the  deepest  essence  and  the 
ultimate  meaning  of  everything.  It  is  not  a 
part  of  life,  it  is  the  only  real  life.  It  is  not 
a  mere  sentiment,  it  is  truth.  It  is  not  the 
source  of  joy,  it  is  the  only  true  joy.  It  is  not 
something  in  consciousness,  it  is  the  perfection 
of  consciousness.  Love  is  the  white  light  of 
pure  consciousness  that  emanates  in  us  from 
God. 

When  we  examine  more  closely  some  of  the 
deep  revelations  that  come  through  the  love- 
experiences  of  human  life,  we  realize  that  Love 
is  indeed  the  mightiest  power  knocking  at  the 
door  of  the  inner  life,  in  order  that  the  true 
Self  may  come  forth  in  all  its  glory. 

Love  has  always  been  the  greatest  awaken- 
ing power  in  the  life  of  man.  In  all  the  long 
years  of  his  unfolding,  and  amid  the  multitude 
of  voices  that  have  called  him  to  thought  and 
feeling  and  action,  no  voice  has  ever  had  such 
potency  as  the  voice  of  love ;  nor  has  any  other 
appeal  sounded  in  his  soul  so  all-compelling  a 
note.  He  has  been  called  to  worship,  to  voice 
the  language  of  beauty,  to  philosophize  on 
life's   mysteries,   to   investigate   life's   hidden 

297 


SPIRIT  OF  THE  NEW  PHILOSOPHY 

secrets;  but  the  one  voice  in  all  these  activities 
that  has  pierced  his  soul,  and  made  him  the 
master  artist,  scientist,  philosopher  or  seeker 
after  God,  has  ever  been  the  voice  of  the  mas- 
ter-passion of  life. 

"For  Love  is  the  creative  force  in  life,  sum- 
moning the  soul  into  earthly  being  from  one 
knows  not  what  incalculable  distance  of  space ; 
cherishing  it  while  it  neither  understands  itself 
nor  the  body  which  houses  it;  surrounding  it 
with  all  manner  of  influences  which  appeal  to 
the  highest  in  it;  evoking  its  latent  nobleness; 
teaching  it  the  great  lessons  of  life,  the  wisdom 
to  know  to  what  voices  to  respond  and  to  what 
to  turn  a  deaf  ear." 

Love  is  also  true  insight.  Among  the  an- 
cient maxims  whose  roots  lie  in  confusion  of 
thought,  none  is  more  misleading  than  the  well- 
worn  aphorism  that  love  is  blind.  If  love  were 
blind,  life  would  soon  sink  into  chaos;  for  love 
is  the  force  that  creates,  the  power  that  sus- 
tains, the  principle  that  governs;  for  God  is 
love.  It  is  the  love  of  his  art  that  draws  the 
painter,  the  poet,  the  musician  into  the  very 
heart  of  his  art  and  makes  his  passion  one  with 

298 


THE  PATHWAY  OF  REALIZATION 

insight;  so  that  he  sees  and  hears  where  the 
rest  of  us  are  only  blind  and  deaf.  It  is  love 
for  truth  that  leads  the  prophet  to  utter  his 
message,  unweariedly,  in  the  face  of  hostile  op- 
position or  blank  indifference ;  but  only  a  later 
age  recognizes  the  truth  and  knows  the  prophet 
as  such.  It  is  love  for  righteousness  that  leads 
the  reformer  to  hurl  himself  against  the  deep- 
seated  traditional  conventions  of  society;  but 
only  subsequent  generations  rise  up  to  call  him 
"blessed."  To  him  only  who  loves  with  an 
all-consuming  passion  is  the  final  veil  lifted 
and  the  ultimate  insight  given ;  for  at  the  heart 
of  things,  knowledge  and  love  are  one. 

In  its  profoundest  aspect.  Love  is  union. 
The  fundamental  aim  of  love  is  non-differen- 
tiation,— absolute  union  of  being.  Sex  is  the 
allegory  of  love  in  the  physical  world,  and  the 
aim  of  sex  is  always  union, — but  on  the  physi- 
cal plane.  What  is  the  meaning  contained  in 
love's  effort  toward  union  from  lowest  to  high- 
est planes?  To  quote  from  JNIr.  H.  G.  Wells: 
"I  think  that  the  desire  to  partake,  the  desire 
to  merge  one's  identity  with  another's  remains 
a  necessary  element  in  all  personal  love.     It 

299 


SPIRIT  OF  THE  NEW  PHILOSOPHY 

is  a  way  out  of  ourselves,  a  breaking  down  of 
our  individual  separation,  just  as  hatred  is  an 
intensification  of  that.  We  cast  aside  our 
reserves,  our  secrecies,  our  defenses;  we  open 
ourselves;  touches  that  would  be  intolerable 
from  common  people  become  a  mystery  of  de- 
light; acts  of  self-abasement  and  self-sacrifice 
are  charged  with  symboHcal  pleasure.  We 
cannot  tell  which  of  us  is  me,  which  you.  Our 
imprisoned  egoism  looks  out  through  this  win- 
dow, forgets  its  walls,  and  is  for  those  brief 
moments  released  and  universal." 

All  religions,  through  the  teachings  of  love 
by  their  great  prophets  and  leaders,  but  es- 
pecially Christianity  as  construed  by  Jesus  in 
terms  of  love  alone,  have  thus  made  explicit  in 
their  ideals,  what  we  find  to  be  implicit  in  the 
universe  and  in  life, — the  principle  of  love  as 
the  great  law  of  individual  life  and  the  ulti- 
mate foundation  of  a  world-society. 

Religion  has  always  been  the  strongest  ideal 
force  in  the  life  of  mankind,  and  yet,  let  us 
admit  it  frankly,  it  is  just  here  that  all  relig- 
ions have  most  conspicuously  failed:  they  have 
never   yet   either    taught   or   practised   their 

300 


THE  PATHWAY  OF  REALIZATION 

supreme  ideUl  so  as  to  make  love  the  dominat- 
ing social  principle.  The  failure  of  Christian- 
ity is  most  marked  because  in  no  other  religion 
has  the  Love-principle  held  so  supreme  or  ex- 
clusively comprehensive  a  place  as  in  the  teach- 
ings of  Jesus. 

It  takes  no  particular  insight  to  discover 
that  the  trouble  with  the  world  to-day,  the  pri- 
mary cause  of  all  its  tragic  disunity,  lies  in  the 
fact  that  we  do  not  believe  in  love,  the  love 
that  is  friendliness  and  good-will  toward  all. 
Even  the  churches  do  not  beheve  in  love,  as 
evidenced  by  the  public  utterances  of  promi- 
nent divines.  We  believe  in  almost  everything 
else,  but  not  in  love.  We  believe  in  force  and 
imprisonment,  in  fear  and  hate,  in  ill-will  and 
persecution;  but  we  are  afraid  to  believe  in 
love  and  in  the  Kingdom  of  love.  We  do  not 
dare  to  treat  men  in  a  friendly  spirit.  We  are 
filled  with  all  manner  of  distrusts  and  sus- 
picions of  our  fellows.  We  are  afraid  to  try 
the  method  of  Jesus.  We  have  no  faith  in  his 
ideals.  We  make  a  mockery  of  his  religion. 
We  crucify  him  afresh. 

But  we  shall  never  find  that  unity  we  seek 

301 


SPIRIT  OF  THE  NEW  PHILOSOPHY 

until  we  learn  how  to  love  oui'  fellows  as  our- 
selves, because  they  are  ourselves.  We  shall 
never  find  unity  in  religion  until  we  begin  to 
love  a  little  more  those  who  differ  from  us. 
We  shall  never  achieve  a  real  unity  in  society 
until  good-will  for  all  classes  and  individuals 
comes  to  possess  us  utterly.  We  shall  never 
build  the  new  world  until  kindliness  shall  char- 
acterize our  attitude  toward  all  nations  and 
races,  even  those  whom  we  have  called  enemies, 
remembering  that  they  are  all  one  with  us  in 
the  living  body  of  humanity.  It  is  on  the  love- 
plane  of  consciousness  that  unity  alone  can  be 
found. 

In  this  great  crisis  of  the  world's  history,  all 
thoughtful  men  and  women  realize  that  in  the 
reconstruction  of  human  life  that  is  now  going 
on,  there  must  be  a  broader,  deeper  recognition 
of  love,  not  as  a  sentiment  or  a  prophecy,  but 
as  the  only  true  social  principle  that  is  at  last 
capable  of  realization;  that  peace  will  never 
come  upon  earth  until  there  appears  a  genera- 
tion of  men  of  good-will  and  friendhness,  who 
have  risen  above  all  narrow  and  selfish  indi- 
vidualism, in  their  own  lives  and  also  in  their 

302 


THE  PATHWAY  OF  REALIZATION 

lives  as  patriots,  willing  and  ready  to  dedicate 
themselves  to  that  higher  internationalism  that 
is  to  he. 

As  Swami  Vivekananda  has  truly  said: 
"Hatred  proceeds  from  imperfect  knowledge, 
which  makes  us  perceive  objects  as  separate 
from  one  another.  But  when  we  see  our  true 
Self  in  others,  how  can  we  hate  another  with- 
out hating  our  self?  It  would  be  impossible 
for  self  to  hate  self.  Where  true  Self-knowl- 
edge is,  there  can  remain  no  feeling  of  hatred. 
He  who  realizes  all  beings  in  the  Self  never 
hates  anything  or  any  being.  When  hatred  is 
gone,  jealousy  and  all  selfish  feehngs  which  we 
call  wicked  disappear.  What  remains?  The 
ordinary  love  which  stands  in  opposition  to 
hatred  vanishes,  but  divine  love  begins  to  reign 
in  the  heart.  True  love  means  the  expression 
of  oneness.  If  we  see  our  true  Self  in  others, 
we  cannot  help  loving  them  as  we  love  our 
Self.  Now  we  understand  the  meaning  of, 
'Love  thy  neighbor  as  thyself.'  " 

The  oldest  philosophy  of  man  has  always 
taught  this  truth.  When  all  beings  appear 
as  parts  of  one  Universal   Self,  there  is  no 

803 


SPIRIT  OF  THE  NEW  PHILOSOPHY 

longer  delusion,  or  fear,  or  sorrow.  Sorrow 
and  fear  arise  so  long  as  there  is  the  sense  of 
duality  and  separateness.  In  Oneness,  how- 
ever, there  cannot  remain  fear,  sorrow,  suffer- 
ing, separation  or  self-delusion.  This  is  the 
result  of  true  Self-knowledge. 

"Know  thyself,"  and  the  surface  self  van- 
ishes and  all  selfishness  is  destroyed.  The 
deeper  Self  emerges  and  all  unselfishness  is  at- 
tained. Herein  lies  both  the  ideal  and  also  the 
explanation  of  true  morality.  Jesus  says, 
"Love  your  neighbor  as  yourself";  and  the 
reason  for  this  supreme  injunction  is  because 
your  neighbor  is  yourself. 

Every  love  of  our  lives,  whether  it  be  love 
for  persons,  or  for  truth,  or  for  righteousness, 
or  for  humanity,  or  for  God,  is  the  true  saviour 
sent  to  lead  us  out  of  the  narrow  kingdom  of 
self  into  the  universal  kingdom  of  love.  God 
is  love.  To  love  God,  then,  is  to  love  Love 
with  a  mighty  all-consuming  passion.  Love 
is  all,  is  life,  is  God. 

No  man  has  ever  had  imagination  enough  to 
exaggerate  the  greatness  of  love.  No  one  has 
ever  yet  begun  to  exhaust  his  powers  of  lov- 

304. 


THE  PATHWAY  OF  REALIZATION 

ing.  No  one  has  ever  yet  dreamed  how  great 
his  love  might  become.  If  men  would  dare  to 
believe  in  love  and  good-will  as  the  mightiest 
forces  in  human  life,  in  the  presence  of  which 
armies  and  navies  are  insignificant  and  help- 
less, if  they  would  begin  at  last  to  take  Jesus 
seriously,  and  honestly  attempt  to  translate  his 
great  ideals  into  living  terms  for  all  men,  then 
indeed  the  new  spirit  of  unity  would  come 
welhng  up  in  the  consciousness  of  humanity  in 
response  to  Love's  imperious  call,  and  the  new 
world  would  be  fashioned  by  the  men  and 
women  who  had  found  themselves  in  union  with 
All. 


THE   END 


305 


.i 


This  book  is  DUE  on  the  last  date  stamped  below 

AUG  6 

FEB  18  1952 

19B1 
^UG  2  7  1962 

REC'D  mn 

SEP  5    1962 


M^' 


'i-'^^mvm^ 


LO 


r^  '"^K  BOX 


Z  1 1964 


REC'ff  ilMKd 


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,  RH-.IONAI  LlBRARV^FACILjTY^^ 


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